


Moons of Red

by DarkandChaotic



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cosplayers from lots of fandoms, Cosplayers into Narutoverse, F/M, OCs get transported into Narutoverse, Orochimaru is a smarmy bastard, Real Life into Narutoverse, Sasuke activates his Shenanigans, lot's of OCs, no, seriously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-25 14:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 74,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/954166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkandChaotic/pseuds/DarkandChaotic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Orochimaru summons cosplayers into the Narutoverse. The cosplayers wreak havoc upon everything that is to happen, in both subtle and unsubtle fashion. What once was a story, now is an epic adventure that is surely going to end with a Big Bang. Earth meets Narutoverse, the cosplayers meet their idols, and Kami just doesn't give a damn. Beware graphic violence, witty banter, perviness, LOTS of OCs.</p><p>This story was a way for me to expand on my writing skills and learn proper character development. Pretty much most of the Elemental countries will be present, along with a large part of the cast. If I was smart, I would've separated each set of OCs into separate parts of the series, but I'm too lazy and too time-lacking to do that now. To date this story is 54 chapters (2/3rds of completion or so) and over 700 pages total. </p><p>Attempt to make the Narutoverse somewhat Real-life-ish, with it being seen through the eyes of the Cosplayers who ended up there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Paris, 2005, 7.5 years ago

\-----------------------------------  
A 17-year-old girl with long red silky hair was looking around nervously. Her stormy gray eyes were twinkling with panic. She was lost in the middle of the City of Love. And she had to have lunch with her parents in 1 hour.

Thick eyelashes, small straight nose and a slightly pronounced jaw-line were all gracing her face. Her rosy-red lips had formed a semi-nervous pout and from time to time she anxiously bit on her lower lip. She was dressed with smart clothes, perfect for the weather or early-summer Paris. White shirt with long black pants, both perfectly ironed. Black sandals with a low heel shone by the rays of the morning sun.

Her name was Rose Romano, daughter of Patrick Romano and Lucrecia Romano, the most successful lawyers in the United States. The rose had yet to bloom, however, as she was still a shy girl.

She had lost her parents. Yes, high school Rose Romano was a nerd, a bookworm, and it was her Harvard years that would ultimately turn her into the tempest known as Madam Leader.

'Ok, don't panic. All will be fine. All I have to do is find my way back to the hotel…' a look of determination appeared and she semi-confidently strode forward, setting course to the nearest person.

"E-excuse me? S-sir?" she started shyly.

The man turned around. He was nothing to be remembered with- he was a plain local Parisian. Sadly, he didn't know English and since Rose didn't know French, every last hope in finding her hotel was crushed by the cruel irony of the world.

After several hours and one Latte later, Rose was even more lost. Her feet hurt from walking and it seemed that despite the fact Paris was one of the most popular tourist destinations; she had the awful chance of not being able to find anyone who could speak English. The world was cruel.

At the moment our heroine was in a more suburbial part of Paris, a rather cute-looking rich neighborhood. How she had gotten there, she had no idea. There was a small area, a small park with all kind of swings for small children and toddlers. She sat herself tiredly on one of the benches and sighed sorrowfully. She hated Paris.

"Hello!"

The voice startled Rose and she swiftly looked up to end up face to face with a blue-eyed blond kid. She looked at her dumbfoundedly, too tired to register what had happened at first. Then it happened. Her eyes grew with realization.

"You speak English!!" she cried of joy and hugged the blond girl tightly." My prayers have been answered!"

Rose let go of the girl and took a better look at her. She was a bit on the short side, slightly plushier than an average girl her age. She had a baby-face and her long, wavy blond hair was just bellow her bottom. The blond girl wore… orange. Who wore an orange jacket over a white shirt in such a hot day? The 10-year old didn't seem bothered, though.

"Can you help me find my hotel? I am lost." Rose said with pleading eyes.

"Sure!" the girl answered with a smile.

'Thank you Lord!' Rose sent a silent thank you to God.

"But first you have to do something for me!"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Come to my Birthday party!"

"Huh?"

The little angel-looking girl had a foxy grin on her face.

"I had told my class mates that I have a really cool friend from the USA." She started. Then, with a worried look on her face she asked apprehensively," You are from the USA, right?"

"Yes, I am, but…"

"Awesome! We'll have a lot of fun! I hope you like chocolate cake!"

The girl grabbed Rose's hand and pulled the helpless brunette towards her house. And, boy was her house full of guests. There were around 30 children, her classmates, Rose mused, all playing games in the yard and around 15 more kids that she later found out were Fia's cousins. And they were all playing on the front yard.

The girl's house was a rather big for such a neighborhood. It was what one could call a model house. The house was two-stories plus an attic inside the roof, which, it seemed, had also been turned into useable rooms by the look of the fine curtains on the windows on the roof.

The house itself was white. In fact, everything about it was either white, pale or in baby colors. The building itself was booming with music. When the girl led Rose inside the living room, which was full with adults, nobody seemed to notice her. This was the girl's birthday, right?

Until then, Rose had wanted to speak with the girl's parents, find her way back to the hotel and leave as soon as possible…she didn't want to intrude, after all. But seeing as this lovely girl was all alone on her own birthday…she even had to make fake friends in order for people to notice her at all…

She felt pity for her. In that fateful moment, she decided to truly become this otherwise friendly and cheerful girl's friend.

The blond made her way through the thick crowd of adults inside the house and finally stopped at a woman with dyed blond hair. That was probably her mother.

"Mom! This is the American friend I told you about! K'thanks'bye!" as soon as Rose had taken a breath after all this dragging (this was one strong little girl!), the pulling started yet again, not giving the girl's mother even a chance to glance at her daughter.

The said woman was talking to an elderly looking woman in her late fifties. She had registered her daughter's words but had paid them no heed. In fact, she tried to cover it up by giggling lightly, as if her daughter's behavior was completely normal.

"Aww…isn't it sweet? Still, she is a little bit old for imaginary friends but I guess I've pampered her too much, now haven't I?" she flashed a beautiful smile, the same as her daughter's," I wish she was more like the normal girls and listened to me more once in a while at least…" She sighed semi-dramatically. "She is a bit of an odd-ball…"

Her last words were said detestedly, almost uncaringly cold, despite the façade of a perfect mother and a working wife of the modern world.

"But my dear!" started her mother-in-law, just as sweetly, covering up the actual cold tone with which she wanted to scold her, "The young lady she presented was a rather fine red-headed American girl. She looks nice. You should talk later with her."

The girl's mother paled.

"That wasn't an imaginary friend?" she seemed horrified.

"Why would it be?"

As the blond girl dragged Rose around the house, the young red-head began to have a better idea of who this kid was. The house was amazingly tidy and the style in each room was unique and yet fitted the rest of the house perfectly. Family pictures, old and new, hung on every wall, revealing not only of what kind of family this girl was, but also, judging by the older pictures… how old her family tree was.

Rose examined them curiously. On the pictures on which the girl was present she seemed to smile brightly and immediately brought attention to herself with that amazing cheerfulness. Her mother seemed so perfectly elegant in her fashion that the red-head was fascinated with how organized that woman looked. She also seemed exceptionally calm and cold and seemingly did not notice the girl next to her on the pictures.

The girl's father, she hadn't seen him personally, but on the pictures… that man was a pure stud. He was tall and handsome, very fit and seemed almost aristocratic, regal. The girl physically looked like both of them. She was as beautiful as her mother; it was already visible that the girl was going to turn into a gorgeous young woman. She had, however, the same determined face of her father…and his blue eyes. And yet she seemed so different than them Rose could compare them to the elements. Her father was like the earth… such powerful presence… she could feel it radiating from the pictures. Her mother was calm and cold, like water…she seemed to be an intelligent and calculating woman…she did not like her.

And yet, here she was. Their daughter- the element of fire. There was so much silent rage within her, Rose was sure of it. The pain of lacking people who understood you… she knew it all too well…

While Rose was shy, the girl dealt with the problem with sheer cheerfulness and friendliness. That girl seemed to have harnessed the elements of her parents, however. She possessed her father's presence- one could see it in her eyes, and she possessed her mother's intelligence by the looks of all the photos of awards the girl had received during her short life… she seemed to be adept with computers, biology, science… everything.

"…and this here is my room!" the girl finally let go of her hand and went in front of her. She theatrically spread her arms to show the door to her room. She opened it and motioned Rose inside. On the second floor of the house it was quieter than downstairs and it was empty. The girl's room was average of size. Unlike a normal girl room, this one contained little to none girlie/Barbie dolls and mostly collectible Transformers or Beast Wars toys, an army of Dinosaurs which seemed to be ordered in terms of evolutionary development. Apart from the shelves covered in collectibles, the girl had the most intriguing collection of Swords on her wall. She also had a weird white and blue shield with some weird symbols on it and a lion's head in the middle.

Next to the window there was a desk with what seemed to be a dismantled lap top and a piece of paper with some schematics on it, titled "The Bible". On the window frame there were some small statues which Rose recognized as characters from a computer game. The weirdest thing in the room (apart from the dismantled laptop) was the girl's possession of an Electrical technician's tools. It was a big layered case that was opened up and reminded her of a separate shelf. The tools were perfectly ordered.

On the walls there were also posters of the Harry Potter movies, which were signed by the various actors of the movies; there was also one poster of Naruto, some anime that she had accidentally seen on the kiddie channel once.

If the room wasn't pink, she would've been sure this was a boy's room.

"Impressive." was all she could reluctantly say.

"Is it? I've bought all of this by myself!" she waved her hand at her crazy Transformers collection. "And these were from my Grandmother." She pointed at the Dinosaur collection.

She then walked over to the shield and the weird sword next to it.

"These are my pride," she pointed and the sword, "and my joy." She pointed respectively to the shield. "Frostmourne replica and High lord Bolvar's shield!"

"Uh-huh."

"And this will become the most powerful super-computer of the century!" she boasted at the laptop parts. "Just don't tell dad… it's his laptop… he thinks he forgot it at the train a week ago!" she added in a conspirative voice.

The blond kid seemed creepy but despite the initial icy shiver down her spine at the prospect something like her existed in the world, she found her cool in her own nerdy way. Yes, Rose was a nerd… but this little girl was a Super- Nerd! Scary, seriously! And she was only what? Probably 10 years old. She seemed smarter than she looked and that was what made her uncomfortable.

Rose Romano was a very insightful girl, after all she was to be a fifth generation lawyer in her family and the right genes to make her a really good lawyer were combined in her… sort of… And despite her being a genuinely insightful and smart person… this girl seemed eons ahead of her, even if she hid it behind immaturity and cheerfulness.

"Let's go downstairs! I want you to meet my best friend MJ, and my cousin Hatorri, and my eternal nemesis and rival, fellow genius Leopold!" she said that rather too vigorously. Rose nodded apprehensively and was yet again dragged by the mercy of the kid's temper.

She didn't even know her name!

"MJ!!! Hatorri!" she yelled.

Rose finally noticed two distinctly dark-haired and pale kids, sitting away from the rest of the commotion. The girl, MJ was of pale pink complexion and she had crystal blue eyes, unlike the vivid sky-blue orbs of the hyper blond girl. Her hair was straight, dark and silky, drawn back by a red diadem. The girl wore a formal looking simple black dress over a white buttoned cotton shirt with short sleeves. On her feet she wore shiny shoes over white silken socks. She slightly reminded her of Alice in Wonderland. But the resemblance ended there. The pale black haired girl seemed so calm and gentle and yet her eyes were watching the laughing, playing and dancing crowd with stone cold dejection. This was not her type of amusement, or maybe there was more to it? This girl seemed somewhat sad and withered with sorrow despite the happy occasion. At the sight of the blond girl however, this MJ seemed to have immediately cheered up and when she looked at their way she merely smiled slightly and gave a curt nod of recognition to the blond girl.

She was sitting on a sofa with the Asian-looking boy who seemed extremely out of it. He had buds in his ears and he was obviously listening to music, that was louder than what was already played in the house…how he could take the noise, she could only guess. He was of pale Asian complexion, unlike MJ's obviously European complexion. He had raven-black hair which was cut short but with bangs and very short locks of hair. He wore a white cotton shirt and a pair of loose shorts and a pair of white sneakers on his feet. Apparently he was completely completely content with his little sound chaos and was even bobbing his head with his own music and silently sung along with it, eyes closed.

MJ looked at him and her face took upon a light scold. She, a bit roughly, shoved him out of his musical nirvana and pointed at the blond girl and her companion.

"Uh, oh." He blinked a few timed. His eyes were the purest onyx she had ever seen. They seemed dark and mysterious and he seemed to be very handsome even at his age. He stretched and yawned and then smiled sheepishly. "Yo!" he greeted them with a wide friendly smile.

"As I said earlier, these are my best friend, MJ, and my all time fave cousin, Hatorri."

"Hello, my name is Rose Romano, pleased to meet you." She smiled shyly stretched out a hand.

"My name is Hatorri Johnson. My mom's an American Japanese, my dad and Fia's dad," he pointed the now identified girl, "are identical twins so were like brother and sister. Oh, and I am NOT an Uchiha if you were about to ask."

"I wasn't going to."

"Michael Jessica Keats. Fiona's best friend and appointed sidekick by said friend. Me and Mr. Not-Emo here both." She said in a bored manner. "I would like to apologize for any future inconvenience I might cause. My dad wanted…another… boy, but mom gave him a cynic." When she was done speaking, she went back to staring dejectedly at the guests.

"Nice to meet you too, I guess…"

"So! You still have to meet with Leopold! This way, guys!"

The group of four made their way to another part of the residence. Fia gave them the signal to wait for her and she disappeared into the crowd and reappeared with a slightly annoyed looking boy with reddish hair and hazel eyes.

"And this, ladies and Gent, is Leo!"

"They already know me, you dolt."

"But Rosy doesn't!"

"Hi." Rose waved shyly at the boy.

\---------------------------

Charlotte Georgiana woke up with a start. She was covered in cold sweat. For the past three months she had almost no sleep at all. And whenever she had a wink of sleep she would always wake up like this – crying, covered in cold sweat, shivering and frightened. She could remember any of her night terrors but she knew what the root of them was- the death of her parents in a car crash 3 months ago.

Charlotte stood up and turned on the lights of her room. She looked at herself in the mirror. Messy shoulder-length blood red hair was hanging loosely. Pale skin, cherry colored lips, blue-green eyes, surrounded by forming dark rings.

The 7-year old sighed. There were no new scars. Usually, after most of the night terrors she would scratch her face with her own nails. That was the reason why she always kept them as short as possible. She still hadn't fully understood the severity of her parents' deaths but ever since that day she had found it hard to speak to other people.

She could still see it in front of her eyes every little detail of that day…She had woken up early that day. Mom and dad had been fighting as of lately and she wanted to make them happy with breakfast in bed. Needless to say 7-year olds were not good at preparing dinner. The red-headed girl had stealthily gone to the kitchen where she took out a frying pan to make some bacon and eggs.

On that morning her parents had woken up from the smell of something severely burned, the sounds of the fire alarm going on, and the fire hoses going of, wetting everything in the house.

Of course, the two very angry and also very wet parents found little Charlie holding two watered dishes with slightly burned bacon and eggs- it was the frying pan that had burst in flames. Apart from being grounded for a month for this, Charlie had also been heavily yelled at.

The Georgiana's were not the best parents. Philip Georgiana was an aspiring musician, a true virtuoso of the violin and the piano. His wife, Marina, was a well- off businesswoman. Both of them were people of their careers and seldom gave attention to their lovely little girl- Charlotte.

Usually she sought their attention but they were always busy, or they would always tell her to be silent or not to bother their very important guests.

That day had been a very rainy day. Charlotte had been seated on the sofa while the maids were trying to dry the other furniture in the house. She was watching the weather channel, the weatherman saying that there was heavy rain in entire France due to some weird cyclone or something. There was nothing interesting on the kiddy channel and so she sat there watching the daily news.

Her parents were now dry and ready to go to their respective work places. Everyone was swiftly moving around her. But it was as if time had moved on without her. She felt unnoticeable and unlike normal happy children, she seldom smiled or laughed.

Her father left his Violin in its cover next to her on the sofa while he was fixing his tie. Her mother was doing the final touches of make up on her face.

"Come, Charlotte, thanks to the little stunt you pulled you are late for school... Feel lucky your father and I have decided to phone your teacher about your current situation."

"But, Mother…"

"No "but, mother" me, young lady! Chop-chop! Your father is waiting for you in the car."

Charlotte did not answer. She stood up and followed her mother to the car. It was raining heavily outside and no sooner that she walked outside her house was she soaked to the bone. Her mother sighed in irritation.

"Are you dumb like that no-good father of yours that you didn't take an umbrella? Get into the car; you've given me enough head aches for an entire week today."

Even though the words hurt her deeply, Charlotte did not answer and entered the vehicle.

The drive to her school was uneventful. Her father was driving, a slight scold marring his otherwise handsome but cold face. Indeed, Charlotte was like her father in many ways. She had his red hair and blue-green eyes. She also possessed his love for music. But she was also like her mother- her skin, her beautiful face…

They used to hug, to kiss, to laugh with each other…. She couldn't understand why they suddenly stopped doing that. One day she had just woken up to the two of them arguing about something. She couldn't quite catch their words. Were they like this because of her? Was she a burden to them? Her father looked at her with little to no emotion at all and her mother always scolded her ever since that day.

They still slept in the same room but there was an invisible wall between them… She tried asking them once but all her mother did was yell at her for asking stupid questions. Then she had sent her to her room…

She feared that they were going to leave her…and she felt so angry at herself for that… they were going to abandon her, she knew it!

That day had been uneventful. School was dull as usual. It was only a few weeks before summer vacation but unlike the other kids she wasn't waiting for it with anticipation. She liked school because that was the time in which she wasn't yelled at or sent to her room. Her teacher was always nice. She had her fair share of problems with math but she excelled in the music class. Her teacher had told her she had the making of a great singer… not that her parents cared. With the beginning of her first year in school she had also started taking violin and piano lessons from good friends of her fathers. It was in favor of her learning how to be organized and responsible.

She did not have pets. Her mother was allergic to cats and she hated anything that was furry, and had deemed even goldfish a dangerous hazard. Charlotte however had a wonderful collection of plushies. Her favorite one was a giant raccoon like plushy which she had named Ron. After Ron Weasley. He was her favorite character in the Harry Potter books. She was an only child and one of her greatest dreams was to have an older brother like him… or at least not be an only child.

That day had been uneventful…until, while waiting for her father to pick her up, she had heard one of the teachers murmuring how her parents were going to divorce and the rumor was that neither of them wanted custody over her.

That was too much for little, gentle Charlotte. She ran. And it was raining so heavily that no one saw her leave the premises of the school yard. She kept running until she found herself on unfamiliar streets. And even then she kept running, knocking down a few people in her way.

It was getting dark and the rain was no close to stopping. She was soaked to the bone, tired and hungry. She saw a large white house and she saw a window open. It might have been around 11 pm and the lights were out in this house. Maybe she could hide herself for the night?

As soon as she had snuck inside the house, a police car passed by. Charlotte seemed to be in some kind of basement. It was warm inside and there were some boxes with what seemed to be clothes. She was very cold and she needed to change her clothes. For her luck, in one of the bags she found a girl's clothes similar to her size. She changed into them. They were too orange for her taste but she was dry now. She took a T-shirt and used it to dry her hair. She hid behind the cartons and fell asleep on a make-shift bed from clothes.

She, however, did not know that that same night, her parents had died in a severe car crash while looking for her. She also did not know they were looking for her. She knew, though, that they were going to abandon her…

That morning she found herself being stared at by a blond blue-eyed girl…

Charlotte wiped the tears from her face. She now lived in a world of silence. During that first week without her parents, the will to speak seemingly left her fragile psyche. She hadn't been able to speak ever since…

The doctors had told her Uncle- the man she now lived with, that it her being mute was caused by sever psychological trauma and that it was not certain if she would ever speak again.

Now, 3 months later, she still couldn't speak. The wound was still as fresh as then. The only difference was those raccoon-like dark circles around her eyes. Her Uncle, Martin, her mom's sister, was a very kind person and did everything he could think of to keep her comfortable and happy. She rarely showed a positive emotion but when she did he was most joyous. She was still learning the sign language but she felt confident that she was going to use it properly and fully soon enough.

Since that horrible day she was what people referred to as a sleepwalker. She would get up at night and do normal or weird things. Sometimes she would attack people, she would scream, she would even speak, sing… she was different from her wake hours.

She still went to therapy. Her uncle had told her that she had locked herself inside her mind and that she was sleep walking because she couldn't find a way out. She trusted him because she was only 7 and because she wasn't old enough to understand how heavily damaged her psyche was.

She still had most of her old plushies with her, including Ron. She, however, had moved in with her uncle in the states and now was attending a normal elementary school there. The new environment was refreshing for her and she found herself having some new friends with which she could play with.

\--------------------------------------------------

Life was slowly going back to normal for her…but the mental scars would take a miracle to heal…

One shot…two shots…three shots… Fire… FIRE!!! Every single bullet hit the mark. Every single bullet she fired hit straight into the 10 marker on the cardboard target. Her light hazel eyes were as sharp as a hawk's. The usually pale skin now bore a heavy tan due to her days in the heavy desert sun of Iraq.

Tiffany Mitchels was 21 years old, freshly returned from Iraq. The time she spent there was enough of a life-time of horrors. She used to be a tall 18 year old, very rugged and tough, but still surprisingly handsome young woman. She was feminine in her own way, despite being very athletic and lean. She was a tom boy. Peachy complexion, light hazel eyes, dirty blond hair…

Her greatest mistake was going to Iraq during the war. She thought she was tough enough to handle it. But she wasn't. Bombs and bullets were flaying about. Bodies were ripped apart. The entire operation was one big mistake. That child shouldn't have died. The whole war was a big mistake. She wished she had never gone there. But she had. Still, she managed to return home without further problems.

Her return was relatively normal. No one was there to meet her, since her father was still at the hospital, treating his injuries- he had fallen from the roof while trying to fix it. Life was supposed to go back to normal but it didn't.

Despite everything that happened, she still wanted more of that action. And that was why she was here now- to practice her own skills. She wanted to join the French Foreign Legion. And she knew she was going to enter- she was in top condition, she was rough and she was the best Sharpshooter in her state- California.

\-----------------------------

AnimaCon, LA, 2012

Have you ever heard of Naruto? Have you ever heard of Akatsuki? Or the AFC? Now you have. AFC or the Akatsuki Fan Club is the greatest Fan Club in the entire globe. It is also the so called mother of the Cosplayer Extraordinaire team of the AFC- the 52 starting members being the best Cosplayers out there. And those 52 met at the Louver, Paris, 7 years ago.

AFC was the Akatsuki Fan Club. It was part of the Alliance between Naruto, Inuyasha and Final Fantasy Cosplay groups, and some other minor ones.

The Trio's nemesis was the Alliance between the Gundams, Soul Society, and the Death Librarians.

For the outside world, those were just cosplay skits, but for the inside world, these skits were actually battles for supremacy between the groups of the fanclubs. It was a battle of Alliances, or, as one of the main characters would say: " It's a PvP doggy dog world out there, and every Con is a battleground. Winning is a must. But even if we lose a battle, the war is yet to be won. After all, no revenge is sweet, but pay back is always a bitch."

As of lately, however, the number of accidents between those two alliances had immensely increased. For example, on the last Con, the famous Hyuuga squads were 'attacked' by the Shinigami Captain squad. The confrontation resulted in the police forces having to lock them up for 24 hours.

Among the AFC Inner Circle ( the starting 52) there was a Hyuuga Squad, Kage Squad, Akatsuki Squad, an Uchiha squad… but among them of greater importance for now were these several individuals:

Among the Inner Circle there were 10 Akatsuki members who possessed the rings, with which the real Akatsuki were so famous with, along with the cloaks.

They were the Cosplayers of said Akatsuki members. Pein was cosplayed by a female version of him- a tall woman with more that pleasing feministic qualities, including a hypnotizing gaze, plumb lips, lavishing red hair, and ,most of all, her Tsunadean great big bust.

Her usually stormy gray eyes were now covered by Rinnengan contact lens, which made her look unusually intimidating. Fake golden and jeweled piercings, the same as the main Pein's, covered her face. Yes, she was Pein's sexy no Jutsu.

A very interesting twist of the original Akatsuki was Hidan's Cosplayer- Tifa. Tifa was a Senior Corporal of the French Foreign Legion, with characteristically white hair and purple contact lens eyes. Her hair wasn't bleached – according to rumors her hair grew white ever since her service in Iraq. She was as aggressive and swearing as the real Hidan.

The Konan Cosplayer was the mother of two- 2.5 year old son Vincent (mini Vincent Cosplay included) and 5 year old daughter Tifa (mini Tifa Lockheart Cosplay included, duh). She and her husband were Italian. Konan was a rather tan Italian woman. Her natural hair color was raven black but right now her hair was dark blue, while her naturally blue eyes contrasted a bit too much with her dark complexion. Her husband's name was Marco, and he was a Cloud Cosplayers. Both met 10 years ago during SakuraCon and married 8 years ago. It was pure chance that AFC came across them. Just like her idol, Konan, or as she was known by passport, Malena, was a master of origami.

Deidara was most likely the "Rum Tum Tugger" of the AFC. 1 blond, 5 Japanese otaku read-heads, 1 word- cake. The Deidara of the AFC was an artist. He was the ace of cakes. He created one of the most expensive and beautiful boutique cakes in Japan. Needless to say he had 5 red-head girlfriends which were the reason why he started cosplaying as Deidara. His real name was Deidara and he didn't have mouths on his hands or his chest. But with his cakes, one would wish they had. David did not believe his art was a bang. His art was fleeting, true, but his art was truly delicious.

Deidara was 166 cm tall and weighed 50.8 kg. David was 180 tall and 90 kg. Obviously a lot more sex on legs. He also possessed a lot of stamina both in his art and in bed. He was Australian. Went with the accent. Him and his Sasori partner both.

Speaking of Sasori…there wasn't much known about the Sasori Cosplayer. His connections with the group were purely business-like. His name was Sam and he was Australian. Rumor had it that he was a mercenary, assassin for hire. But those were just rumors, or were they?

The Kisame Cosplayer was very tall, 195 cm and he was from San Francisco. While Tifa was from LA, both of them were good friends from even before joining AFC and it was him that made her sign up for the French Foreign Legion. Both of them were Senior Corporals but while she trained her gunning skills in her spare time, he trained swords. It was only later, when both of them joined the AFC that his skills came in handy. His real name was Benjamin, Ben for short.

The Zetsu Cosplayer was a botanist. He was recruited by the AFC after a few of the members visited the big botanic garden he was taking care of. He was chosen for Zetsu not only because of his amazing knowledge of plants but also because when he was drunk he turned nasty.

The Itachi Cosplayer was probably the best and most natural Cosplayer of them all. She, yes, she- was a 16 year old British girl with blue eyes, pale skin and rosy gentle lips. Her name was Michael Jessica Keats and she was the Trickster World Champion. She specialized martial arts and was adept with different kinds of weapons, except guns and the like.

Her best friend was, ironically, the Sexy no Jutsu Naruto Cosplayer- Fiona Johnson. And she was the real founder of Akatsuki, hence the reason why she wore another Sasori ring. But unlike his, hers was turned with the stone down, as a symbol of her secretive status. Most of the AFC members were in some way trained in the martial arts. Unlike them, however, Fia was a cheerleader and, while very agile and vigorous, she was not what people would refer to as physically fit. She was 175 cm tall and 17 years old. She weighed 65 kg and apart from her bronze tan, contrasting blue eyes, and long blond wavy hair, she was most commonly remembered by her tight ass, thin waist and big bust.

To cut a long story short, all the members had their own story. But one's true character could be best revealed through a series of life changing events such as the ones that would eventually occur.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some cosplayers suffer through a transuniversal experience

AnimaCon was a very interesting convention for gamers and otakus, and normal people alike. As per usual there were contests of different kinds- best costumes, best skits and such. People sold their drawings or crafts there and during those 2 weeks of the convention there were parties and fireworks and such.

The AFC had its representatives there, of course, it being in LA and having one member living there in an unnecessarily large house by the beach was a bonus. As of lately, the AFC were exceptionally careful when going to cons. They didn't want any more police involvement. The lavishing Madam Leader, real name Rose Romano, was cat walking down the convention, followed by the dangerous stride of MJ, the Itachi Cosplayer, the ever-vigilant Hidan Cosplayer- Tifa, Naruko/ Fia's seductive sway and her slightly scolding-looking cousin Hatorri, their grudging Sasuke Cosplayer. They were a strange sight to see, especially in this time of day, and the combination of their Cosplay with normal accessories and clothing was very intriguing to see.

Madam Leader had her Akatsuki Cloak wide open, showing off her marvelous bosom. Beneath it she wore something similar to what ninja wore but her clothes were obviously sport-like, her feet donned with custom Addidas ninja sandals. Despite being a lot more modern looking, her clothes were perfect for ninja Cosplay. Her pale complexion seemed slightly peachy, slightly reddish, due to her sunbathing. She wore a pair of sunglasses which added up to her "cool" image.

Tifa was wearing the same type of sport/ninja pants and for a top she had the upper part of a black bikini set. On her neck she had the Jashin's Rosary. Her scythe was an actual copy of Hidan's scythe but she told people it was Plexiglas. She also wore sunglasses and her cloak was also opened up. It was too hot otherwise.

MJ was wearing similar clothes- black tank top, sport/ninja pants, ninja sandals. Apart from everything else she also had her Akatsuki hat- she hated the sun and used it to hide herself from it. It was not that she really hated it- she was very sensitive to the sun. She seemed calm and content right about now. There was nothing pink about to haunt her. On her back she had a back pack with her drawing stuff and other things.

Her eyes were covered by her Sharingan lens. They were dark red in color to be a bit more realistic. Three tomoes were visible whenever she looked about.

Fia was next to her. She looked a bit like a more promiscuous version of a Barbie doll. But it was only because her hairstyle, the clothes she wore and the make up. The beautiful blond girl carried herself with perfectly acted out promiscuousness and smuttiness. Her short orange skirt was just a few centimeters below her panties and there weren't a few but many who admired her beautacious qualities. She also wore a thin white cotton tank top with the swirly Uzumaki orange symbol on the front. It was a short tank top as it was just below her bust, revealing her belly which had the very feint patterns of the Kyuubi seal drawn upon it. She also wore an orange bra which was partly visible. On top she wore the trade mark Naruto jacket. It was hot but the light sea breeze kept things moderately cool. The non Cosplay things she wore included a thin golden chain on which she wore something that seemed to be a solar pendant. It was small but big enough to hide a microchip containing some of the AFC's greatest secrets and other information.

Fia's hairstyle was the Sexy no Jutsu twin ponytails which she had tied with orange ties. On her head she had a tennis hat… an orange tennis hat. Heavy eyeliner and long thick eyelashes made her stark blue eyes gleam like sapphires. She wore reddish glance on her lips and very small amounts of rouge on her cheeks. She also had the famous whisker marks drawn to look like scars by MJ. MJ was an amazing artist after all.

Hatorri was a very good looking young 18 year old man. He indeed looked like Sasuke Uchiha which was also the reason why he traveled next to his cousin, Fia. He was part of team seven and since they traveled with 3 of the Akatsuki he had to look at least a bit intimidating. He wore the Sound costume and a lot of fan girls swooned at his bare chest.

Occasionally people stopped to take photos with them. The 5 of them were looking for a nice restaurant where they could stop to have lunch. Finding an expensive enough restaurant outside of the convention in LA was an easy thing. Especially when one of the members had clients in such restaurant.

After all, Rose Romano was a fifth generation lawyer in her family.

After half an hour of randomly walking about, Madam Leader finally decided to call her personal driver and take them to one of her favorite restaurants in the whole of LA. Of course, she was a rich woman and a limousine was a must. They were still in Cosplay when they entered the anonymous very expensive restaurant. But from previous experience, Rose took measures and gave both Fia and Hatorri a set of Akatsuki clothing which, for her sake, had been added to the allowed dress code of the restaurant. The waiters had been used to the sight of the AFC members and the moment they saw them, they took them to their usual VIP corner.

Needless to say after three hours everyone was waiting for Fia to finish her fifth dessert. She truly was gluttonous. The rest were chatting lightly while she was barely moving with her swollen from food tummy.

"That was goooood" she said, obviously content.

"Heh, let's go Kyuubi-girl." Smiled MJ.

"Should we go back to the AnimaCon? Peter said he'll be about today and we need to make plans for crossover skit." Started Tifa. "And I really want to fight him, ya know?"

"We will go back soon enough… as soon as Fia can move again. Until then I suggest we head back to your house, Tifa. I want to fix my piercings and my hair."

It was late afternoon when they finally returned to the AnimaCon. The music was playing loud and Peter was yet to show up. He had to come along with Kate, his wife (Aerith Cosplayer), Marco and Malena, Tifa and Vincent, AND a couple a' more other Final Fantasy Cosplayers. Until then, they spend their time sprawled upon a few benches, Fia using Madam Leader's lap as a pillow and her Akatsuki cloak as a blanket.

Rose took a deep breath and closed her eyes, drawing her head back. She basked in the last rays of the sun for the day. How she enjoyed these moments of utter bliss. The laughter and music about her reminded her of why she joined the AFC in the first place- the feeling of belonging.

Suddenly, however, she felt a shadow hide the sun rays. She opened one eye lazily. The shadow was cast by no other than the leader of the Death Librarians – Light. As one could guess, he was a unique copy of the character he cosplayed. He was also an old friend and nemesis of Fia- Leo.

"What do you want, heathen?" L-chan lazily drawled.(Madam Leader was also known as L-chan.)

"I simply came to negotiate, madam. „Light answered with a mockingly businesslike tone.

"Go away, Darkness, I'm busy sleeping…" Fia mumbled in her sleep and turned her back to Light, effectively tucking herself with her Akatsuki cloak and stretching her bare feet's toes and finally hiding them underneath her makeshift cover of an Akatsuki Cloak. L-chan smiled and started patting Fia as if she was a kitten that was sleeping in her lap.

"Don't mind her… she is sleeping…What do you want to negotiate about, my dear nemesis?" L-chan was a lawyer, after all.

Light smiled and sat on Madam Leader's right side. He could be described as flirtatiously diplomatic. Rose didn't like him, not one bit. But the rules of Cosplay Chivalry demanded civilized conversations. Light was Fia's schoolmate and he was just as smart as her. They used to have a decent acquaintance until he started to hit on her.

"My colleagues and I were thinking about making a compilation skit. The fans are wondering why there are none. And we supply what the public demands, don't we?"

Light was seventeen and L-chan was 25. Light wasn't hiding the fact he liked L-chan and he was doing everything possible to make her date him. He always got what he wanted, except for L-chan, and that drove him nuts.

For a few minutes the two (three but Fia was sleeping) of them sat in silence while L-chan was obviously ignoring Light, while thinking of an appropriate answer. In that silent period of time L- chan absent-mindedly was looking at the cheery crowd, which was constantly on the move. It appeared as if the dynamics of the surrounding world disconcerned the bench area. It was as if a line had been drawn between the Elite Cosplayers and the general crown of fans, separating the last moments of spring and the awaited beginning of the summer vacation.

The air was filled with a sense of expectation, a slight nostalgia for the spring and an unrealized excitement. Or so it was in the bench's area. L-chan's common sense was telling her that such atmosphere should not exist. The Con was a place in the space-time continuum in which none of the aspects of real life concerned the participants of the event and the imaginary bubble their little group was surrounded with was nothing else but a warning in the beautiful woman's eyes to get the heck out of there.

A good ninja always took in all aspects of their surrounding environment, even the slightest glimpses of unnormalties.

As realization had already dawned minutes ago, even if she hadn't realized it fully yet, all the drowsiness and laziness evaporated as fast as a drop of water on a white hot sheet of metal. L-chan turned calmly to Light and with her usual attitude towards Light and stared intently into his eyes with her stormy gray orbs. He was smirking slightly while enjoying her curvaceous and luxurious appearance. The Leader of the AFC wondered whether he was thinking about he or some kind of evil plan to take over her club.

It was a silent battle between gods. The air filled with tenseness which gradually raised high enough to stir Fia fully awake, even if she still appeared to be sleeping. Even the other three of the group felt that something was wrong.

The young man sitting next to her smirked a bit more prominently, while a glint of malice was glistering in his eyes. On the other hand, L-chan was lustfully calm and emitted all of her royal glory through those passionate stormy gray orbs.

"I am still waiting for your answer, madam Leader." The flirt in his voice was obvious.

"Then you will wait a few more years until it is legally alright to answer everything, Light" With that the five Akatsuki rose themselves and at the same time skillfully disappeared in the great mass of people.

On Light's casual's face was only visible the slightest whisp of a shadow of a frown, marking how truly furious he was. And he thought he had them this time. His men had surrounded them without them noticing! How truly devious was his sweetheart. The hunt was on as the five Akatsuki members had a few seconds lead.

Light smirked maliciously and his excitement was obvious. This time he won't let them escape. Both parties were moving swiftly and silently through the mob, the outsiders of this battle not even noticing how they were standing on a battlefield.

L-chan was mentally cursing as she was dialing numbers on her mobile phone, while nearly running her way to the parking lot.

In a situation like this, where the AFC's position could be compromised by the enemy organizations, there were several drills. Today they were using the 'every man for himself'-drill.

"Over there!"

The red-haired beauty saw as a group of Soul Society members surrounded her officers Fia and MJ. They were five and the girls – only 2. What kind of a leader would she be to leave them like this? L-chan swiftly changed her direction and, as the battle started, charged and knocked down on the ground two of the attackers. But the commotion brought the attention of their other pursuers, as well as the attention of the police that patrolled the area.

The three ladies were surrounded in a circle by a mixture of Shinigami and Librarians. Light stepped inside the circle and walked over to L-chan.

"I love it when you are so furious, madam. I say you give up to avoid attention." His smirk widened as he could smell a nearing victory.

Fia and MJ had taken defensive stances next to their leader. The policemen nearby were eyeing the situation carefully, assessing whether it was a skit or a real up-coming brawl.

Again, silence within the bubble had ensued. Everyone was waiting for L-chan's response. This time she could not twist her words. The honor of the AFC was at stake. Her honor was at stake.

Only L-chan's slightly creased eyebrows exhibited how grave the situation was. The tension had risen beyond boiling point and for the first time in many years the vicious queen of thugs and cutthroats hesitated about her answer.

And, as if sensing her commander's discomfort, Fia took the situation in her hands.

"As the honorable Maito Gai says," she started. L-chan turned her head swiftly towards the Naruto-girl.

She had the same determination and fierceness as the Kyuubi-kid. L-chan felt so proud of her in that particular moment. The leader knew what she was going to say. She also knew that there was no backing down now.

MJ, Fia and L-chan looked at each other and shouted fiercely like lionesses:

"THE LOTUS BLOOMS TWICE!"

The three young ladies attacked so swiftly and surprisingly that Light had no time to react.

Yet again, the ninja wanna-be's proved their supremacy over enemy anime and manga. And Light found out that L-chan was not only amazingly beautiful, but also very strong. His area, of which one should not speak of, would be swollen for days ahead.

Having startled the enemy, someone threw a smoke bomb. Apparently, Tifa had found an escape route and was swift enough to change her attire with her desert military one. Needless to say, she was holding a real grenade thrower. And to further startle the local militia, she shot a few flash grenades up in the sky, creating the needed diversion for her fellow members to escape.

"GO! GO! GO! GO!" Fanny yelled at the three Akatsuki girls and the four vanished out of sight.

Hatorri, along with Madam Leader's private driver were waiting in the limousine.

The driver parked the limousine in front of Tifa's house.

"I hope this won't intervene with my going to university." Hattori said grimly. "As much as I like it here, I still think medicine is my priority for the next 15 years."

"My dearest Hanzo-sama," Madam Leader started sweetly. She just couldn't get angry at him. He was the best Shippuuden-Sasuke. "You can study medicine as long as you like. But we will still kidnap you when we need you. Even during lectures."

"Rose? Peter will be mad that we're not here." Fia added but to deaf ears.

All four Inner Circle members nodded in confirmation. Hattori sighed in defeat and followed them inside the house.

On the next day the AnimaCon had reached its apogee and the five AFC people were in the middle of one of their best skits. Namely Naru-chan trying to convince Sasuke to return to Konoha, while L-chan and Fanny were flirting with him. And just as the three of them were actually pulling him in a tug-o'-war, smoke filled the stage and Itachi's ghost ( MJ ) appeared and helped Naru-chan with pulling Sasuke. Fia, though, didn't need help. It was only part of the show. In a real tug-o'-war it took five full grown adults as fit as Fanny just to manage her advance in the game. She was unnaturally strong, and, given how fragile she looked, it was literally a hidden line of sorts. Hattori was also quite strong, which proved somewhat L-chan's theory that hideous strength was a blood line of the Johnson 'clan'. Strength, cuteness and genius made Fia evil from time to time. But she never overdid it. At least she thought so. The blond had incredible control and never hurt people who weaker than her. At least not physically. I never said mentally. If anything, that weird girl had principles.

Back to the story, Sasuke had enough idiotism and left to write depressing poetry. The skit ended. It was a success since the AFC members were so natural on the stage.

As they gathered to bow down to the crowd, L-chan noticed Light yet again. He was giving her evil smirks. Today though, L-chan made sure to travel in the company of the Brotherhood ( ShinRa in Japanese ), whose representatives at the Con were more than 50. The AFC leader smirked back and blew him a sexy kiss. Light was obviously surprised but also pleased. He was about to ensue another hunt, when somebody placed a gloved hand on his shoulder.

He turned around to see no other than Sephiroth himself. He was the leader of ShinRa and an exact copy of the one-winged angle. Naturally, he was quite intimidating and tall. His long silver hair was dyed, but his own never the less. The general pulled the smaller than him Light and L-chan only saw Sephiroth's tall figure swimming its way through the crowd. As she looked around, ShinRa members had taken strategic places. If AFC was the greatest Fanclub, the ShinRa was the most dangerous one. The clubs often did drills together. It was fun.

The AFC skit was leaving the stage when an explosion was heard and everything blacked out. When the smoke cleared and the lights were on again, there was no sign of the five AFC members. The Brotherhood searched high and low for them. Was it some kind of a trap? With L-chan gone, there was no telling what would happen inside the AFC. The enemy organization was going to pay – namely Light, who was officially held hostage by the ShinRa.

Peter, Sephiroth's real name, could not think of a way to kidnap a group of people in the middle of a crowd with no one noticing. If they didn't find them soon, Light's head was going to roll. An angry Peter was a scary Sephiroth.

"Where did you take them, mortal!" Sephiroth yelled fiercely in Light's face. Light was trapped to a chair, handcuffs on his wrists and also on his feet.

Light was calm and collected, as most leaders, but in this case he was hard pressed by Sephiroth's interrogation methods. After all, the Final Fantasy ex-general was master of fear-factor.

"I didn't take them anywhere."

"You didn't. But your friends did."

"If I were in your shoos, I would be freaking out as well, Sephiroth." Light said calmly. Did the guy have a soul at all? This was no role-play! Four of the most important members of the AFC were missing and Light was talking to him as if they were drinking tea. That only infuriated the silver-haired one-winged angel even further. Light was always honest. Well, the man behind the Light persona, that is. Something was amiss and that something told Peter and that something told Peter that Light had nothing to do with their disappearance. He was getting more worried by the second.

The five AFC members had been moving strategically slow down the stage, giving the Brotherhood enough time to seize their enemies. It was then that a bright flash of light surrounded them.

At first, time slowed down as the light intensified. It was like a shield of non-existing material. The five AFC members were glued to their spots by intense pressure and a humongous gravitational pull.

"What's going on?" Tifa managed to mutter with much difficulty.

Among the five of them only Fia managed to move. She grasped MJ's and L-chan's hands tightly.

"Please let it be what I want it to be!" she shouted excitedly. Hattori looked at her. He felt an odd itch where his temporary Orochimaru bite mark was.

All of them felt great amount of power being embedded into them. The bright light turned into utter darkness. All of them were pierced by horrifying pain. It was so great that they passed out, forgetting how it all happened.

Beautiful sapphire eyes fluttered open by the sound of chirping forest birds and cool, gentle mountain breeze, taking the warmth away. She felt her body unusually stiff, due to laying on the ground. All was a blur for a while but soon enough her vision cleared and exposed to her a serene forest surrounding. Fia was still rather inadequate, at the moment wondering what she was doing lying on the ground. It was then that she realized that her hands were holding in a death-grip the arms of two people. She gently loosened her grip and gently arose in a sitting position. The blond girl's first reaction was to release her hair from her pony tails in an attempt to warm herself. She looked around and saw MJ and L-chan lying by her side. At first, she was jealous about them still having their cloaks on. It was a rather cold morning, she reasoned spitefully.

That was the moment in which the 17-year-old ninja wanna-be finally caught on to what was going on and in her fright screamed on the top of her lungs. Needless to say, she had some pair of lungs. Fia was at an immense state of panic and chaos ensued as MJ and L-chan were swiftly awoken by horrid screams.

"Calm down, you screeching banshee!" MJ glowered and smacked the girl behind the head, efficiently quieting the chaotic blond. "Where are we?"

That question was in all three girls' heads. Rose started looking around, trying to find something familiar in their surrounding, but, alas, in vain.

First, they noticed it was early morning and it was quite chilly. Their last memories were of their skit which was performed at noon. On top of that, the mornings at the Con were rather warm even if it was late April and it was expected that at least few of the mornings would be cooler, but the sheer air in the forest region was different – both in scent and humidity. After all, the Con was in Las Vegas. The air in their current location smelled of rain: it was cool and very damp, it smelled of pine trees and something else that was slightly sweet and familiar, but they couldn't put their finger on it.

Their was a mountain range that was alien to them both by peaks and shapes. And Rose had been all around the world. The flora was different as well. It strangely reminded Fia of the Triassic period, as it contained pine trees, ginkgo, ferns, and that sort of exotic flora.

"Where the hell are we!?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tifa and Charlotte wake up in a desert

Tifa woke up. She felt extremely thirsty and the sun was blinding. She tried to adjust to the light…and that heat! When she was finally able to look around she found herself lying in the middle of a desert underneath a palm tree. She was in a small oasis. It was like a nightmare… was she back in Iraq? The sand was similar. Something beside her moved. She looked around and to her surprise she saw a 14 year old girl with severe sun burn. The reddish hair suggested only one person- Charlie.

Despite the circumstances Tifa did the one thing she knew was the most important to do- wake up Charlie. Judging by the severity of the usually pale girl's sunburn and by her own thirst she was sure they might've been here for about a few hours.

A person in such a predicament would wonder how they got there. Tiffany, however, was a Senior Corporal of the French Foreign Legion and right now the most important thing was not to find out how the hell she got there but to save Charlotte's life.

"Char…"Tifa coughed. Her throat was so dry! She looked about for water and saw a small water source that seemed to be pouring fresh cold water. It might have come from an underwater mountain source.

She went over to it and slowly, despite her thirst, drank. She then, now refreshed, pulled Charlie over to it and poured some water on her heavily burnt face.

"Charlie! Wake up!"

The girl coughed weakly and opened her light green eyes. She seemed slightly delirious which greatly worried Tifa. She seemed to recognize her, though as she mouthed her name.

"Yeah, it's me. Now drink… and save your strength, honey."

Slowly and in small sips she offered water to the apparently sun-striken 14 year old. Some of the girl's vigor returned and she was able to drink water on her own. In the mean time the Senior Corporal looked yet again about to see if there was anything of use in this small oasis. The palm trees weren't ordinary palm trees – they were date-palm trees. And they bore lots of fruits. And fruits meant energy, precious calories, and vitamin C.

There were also dry wood and grass. She could use them to some degree, she guessed. And then she saw a few sacks sprawled not too far away. She recognized 2 of them. She went with them to Iraq. She hadn't used them since she came back. One sack had her uniform and other necessities. The other bag however…it contained weapons.

The other two bags probably belonged to Charlie. One was sac with necessities, the other – her violin. It was down right weird but Tifa wasn't about to question this. Not right now. Their survival was more important.

Tifa brought back the sacks to the now fully conscious Charlotte. She seemed very confused about her surroundings and she clapped a few times to capture Tifa's attention. She used the sign language to ask about their current situation.

"I'm sorry Charlie, but I don't know, either." The Senior Corporal answered solemnly. "And I don't think this is some practical joke seeing as you were in New York and I was in LA with Rose, Fia, MJ and Hatorri."

Charlie frowned deep in thought. Why were they there? Who brought them there? Where were they? Why couldn't she remember being moved at all?

"Don't worry Charlie. I'll do everything I can to keep you safe, you know that." Tifa gave her a reassuring smile. "Besides, didn't you always say how much you admire the desert? Now is your chance to learn how to live in it."

Charlotte smiled a bit. One of the things people learned in the French Foreign Legion was high morale.

"You know? I'll get you something to eat. Those dates look good enough to eat." The white-haired woman said with a smile. She used one hand to hide her eyes from the sun and looked up at the dates.

She then sighed and effortlessly climbed one of the trees. Tifa did so effortlessly, but extremely carefully. The palm- bark was jagged like knives. One wrong move and she could go down covered in deep cuts. Once she got up there she ever so tenderly adjusted herself on the palm tree. She took out a knife she always carried with herself and cut down a few branches with dates. They fell on the ground where Charlie collected them. Going up was easier than going down. It took her 10 minutes of tedious descent.

It was getting dark. And cold. It was time to make some fire to keep warm. Fire was always good- kept away wild animals. Tomorrow morning Tifa would figure out what to do. Staying here was a no. The first thing she would do was to get all the dates and figure a way to carry enough water for them. She didn't even know where they were which was even worse.

Tifa made a fire place and gave Charlie the jacket of her old military uniform. She seemed cold. She was 14 year old girl after all. She would try and make some kind of containers from the dry grass and wood. The Senior Corporal rummaged through her old stuff and found a flask with alcohol. People would throw the alcohol, currently whiskey, away to use it for water but Tifa knew better. What if they get wounded? The alcohol could save them from infections. In any case, the morrow was always wiser than the eve.

To the surprise of both of them, one of the objects they found in the sacs was Charlie's father's old violin- the only thing that had managed to remain unscratched from the car crash. At first Charlie's eyes watered. It was still in perfect condition. Then she took it out and performed a tune on it. It was the first time she ever used it. And she was just as good as him if not better than him in playing it.

It was a rather good end for that day and 2 hours later the both of them were cuddled close to the fire place, trying to keep warm and comfortable. The night, just like the day was starry. The stars were so bright one would think they were within an arm's reach.

\----------------------------------------

The morning was cold and unpleasant for both of them. The wind had picked up and with it came the strange smell of the sea. The sun had yet to rise but Tifa was good enough in surviving in such wilds to determine East and West and, in consequence, North and South. These winds were strong and the possibility of a sand storm was great. It was very strange for Tifa. She had been to Iraq and many other places with such a climate around the world but…the sand was so similar to what was in Iraq… the winds were blowing in the wrong direction. The Persian Gulf must be the other way around. In any case the two of them had to remain here for now and prepare for a possible sand storm.

Not too far away from there a rather large village in the middle of the desert was also preparing itself for the wrath of the desert wind demons. But among them only a single individual seemed unphazed by the upcoming sand storm. He was a boy with aqua green eyes, blood red hair, and a tattooed "Ai" kanji above his left eye. His name was Sabaku no Gaara.

"Ok, Charlie, take this knife and cut as many grass stems as you can. I will teach you how to knit it. I'll gather some more dates from the trees. We don't want them to be blown away, now do we?"

Charlotte took the knife and nodded. Some half an hour later Tifa was showing Charlie how to make different containers from the grass. In some two hours they had made a make-shift shelter from the wind and hopefully a Sand storm and were now preparing their equipment for a possibly very long and tiring journey through the desert.

Tifa had tried to look about up on the pal trees but all she could see was sand dunes. She hoped that they would be able to find signs of civilization or life at all about here- the desert was merciless to those who were not prepared. Most of the dates were not ripe enough to be delicious and they had a very bitter taste. Luckily, if the weather allowed, they would hunt something down soon enough. The desert was always a barren place, but even it was abundant of life, if one knew how to find it, of course.

Everything was ready when the sand storm hit. It struck as sudden as the strike of viper. Tifa had been through several such storms, but never something as severe as this. Lucky that she had decided to make their shelter extra strong. They also had a good supply of food and water with them and they would survive through it eventually.

The sand storm lasted through the day. It was by nighttime that the vicious howls of the wind subdued. The makeshift shelter was buried beneath a sand dune, meter and a half above them. Once they managed to dig themselves out, Tifa decided it was a good enough time to start moving. The night seemed pleasant enough, if a bit chilly, to move about. The dunes were shifted by the sand storm and she was sure that she could make out the weak light of something in the distance. That would be their destination.


	4. Chapter 4

Tall trees and thick mists… and lots of rain. It had been raining almost non-stop and the three of them were soaking wet. Apart from MJ, the two other girls were on the verge of giving up. Fia being the worst. It was funny really, since she was their appointed guide. Among the three of them, only she knew how to get by in such conditions. She even had a walking stick. At first they had thought this was some practical joke but after the end of the second day moods rapidly changed.

Fia kept insisting they were in Rain Country but the other two girls knew well both her paranoia and her otakuness well enough to take her words and bullshit. Still with every minute passed they began to actually process whether what Fia was saying was true or not.

There weren't such thick woods anywhere on Earth. Fia knew that much. And the flora didn't match anything they've ever seen. These woods were so thick. And these humongous trees! Those branches seemed thick enough to carry not one but many ninja.

Strangely enough they had found their stuff lying close to their location. Among other things was Fia's so called supercomputer, The Bible. That thing was like a plane's black box. It could survive almost anything. It had to. Fia metaphorically kept her soul in it. The rain however made it nearly impossible for her to use it.

Being the pampered girls they were, even good ole' gluttonous lazy tomboyish Fiffie-kins, constant rain did wonders for their skin… but ruined their hair. As things were, they looked like wet rats. On a more humorous note, L-chan had taken off her fake piercings due to Fia's warning about her being a living grounding device. And, out of fear for dear life, she took them off, indeed.

One of the more useful things they found in their own possession was Fia's creepy collection of Swiss Army Knifes, flint, MJ's weapon pouches, and, thank god, tampons.

According to Fia, the forest was full with critters they could kill and eat. And, indeed, after setting out several traps made of strings, they were where the reader would find them- happily eating squirrels.

The now dried up blond girl (whose hair was now severely curly) was munching happily on a warthog's hind leg, cooked, of course. The two other girls had long finished eating. Despite all, with Fia everything was always about food, laziness, Madara, Kakashi, Pein (All of 'em) or the universal use of Deidara's smutty hand mouths… the list of things was long but it was either food, games or anime and manga.

"So what are we going to do? We can't live like cavewomen for the rest of our lives." Started Rose.

"*munch* we could try and climb a tall tree and poke about….when it stops raining…"

"Fia, you mean IF it stops raining."

"That *munch* I do, Jessica-kun."

"We really need to find civilized life, people." L-chan sighed.

"If there is any, I believe they would find us by our tracks. And we live in a modern world…since the three of you still think we're on Earth, and then finding home should be easy. We're probably somewhere near Canada."

"It doesn't rain like this in Canada."

"Yes, it does."

"Fia…."

"Day after tomorrow."

MJ facepalmed herself. This wasn't getting anywhere,

"Fiona."

"Don't put me under stress! I can't think under stress!" The blond yelled defensively.

"Both of you shut up and listen! I think I heard some voices."

For the past two days the three of them had gotten rather paranoid. If they were indeed in the world of Naruto, then that meant they had to deal with medieval things like lack of transport, rogue ninja, bandits, dirt roads…. And the worst of all things imaginable…..8-bit computers.

There was the possibility of being captured by some really wacky criminals, getting raped, sold to slavery, killed and THEN raped…. Eaten… things kept running through Fia's head since she was the most paranoid of the three.

They were in a rather dry cave, compared to the rainy wilderness outside. They had lit up a very small fire to warm and dry themselves. Those voices were of a group of men. They couldn't quite capture what they were saying and they might be criminals so they kept it quiet to hear what they were saying.

They seemed to far away and did not come any closer. The rain had a positive side as well. If these people were truly criminals then they couldn't find them. The rain had probably completely washed away their tracks and they had stumbled upon the cave by chance when Fia tripped on a root (yet again) and fell through some bushes and into this opening that turned out to be a cave.

Fia was known for being a chance hazard anyways.

"Should we check it out?" whispered Madam Leader.

"I vote for MJ."

"You wouldn't pick it any other way. Dobe."

"Of course. Teme."

"No fighting."

"Sorry."

The black-haired girl swiftly and silently went outside in search of the voices they had heard.


	5. Chapter 5

"Report" said a man hidden in the shadows.

"We found 3 women. All three of them in the age span 15-25 years of age. The first one we found was black-haired. 178 cm tall weighs 55 kg, blood type B+. Eye color crystal blue. Skin complexion- pale pink. Does not seem local."

The man nodded, telling the shinobi to continue.

"The second one was 185 cm tall, red hair, peachy pale skin complexion, slightly tanned by the sun. She seemed to… possess eyes like yours, sir."

The Rinnengan eyes of the man in the shadows widened considerably. Was it possible there was another one like him?

"What of the third person." He asked impatiently.

"She was the feistiest of the three. She…uh… knocked out one of us by accident…with a roasted hog's leg."

The leader slightly raised an eyebrow.

"Only the black haired woman caused us the greatest problems in capturing her. She seems to be well trained in some weird foreign form of martial arts. The other two did not exhibit any such skill..."

"Continue."

"The third one is blond. Sapphire blue eyes, naturally tanned skin, 175 cm tall, 65 kg in weight. Does not seem fit in any way in physical training but exhibited exceptionally quick wit."

"Anything else?"

"We found several bags with their belongings. So far most concerning was a strange rectangular black box with a strange writing in gold on it. We are still working on opening it but, alas, no luck so far. Whoever built it had all kinds of disasters in mind, sir."

"You may go." The shadowed man said, after a considerable pause." Tell your men to keep them in as healthy condition as possible. I will have them interrogated when they wake up."

The ninja bowed down in respect and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Pein, for that was his name, exhaled deeply. This was an unexpected turn of events. At least he got the mystery of the possibly spying ninja solved. But still, who were these women? They were obviously no Kunoichi material. He rummaged through the file the Jounin had left. He opened up the page where the info of the red-haired woman was. He could see a photo they had made of her while unconscious. She seemed peaceful. He noted that she was very feminine, despite her slightly pronounced lower jaw.

Her hair seemed like his own. He looked at the items his ninja had found with them. Akatsuki cloaks? This was getting even weirder. He would have to have them interrogated as soon as possible. Usually interrogation involved great deal of torture but something within him told him to take a bit different approach. There was something very off here.

\--------------------------------------------

Two sapphire blue eyes opened slowly, revealing the dark ceiling of a gray room. The blond girl raised herself in a sitting position and stretched herself lazily and grudgingly. Her back felt like hell. Someone sure made sure to buy the cheapest beds possible… what a cheap bastard…

Fia grumbled in displeasure and sleepily gazed about. Her eyes suddenly snapped wide open. She remembered being in a cave… and then those murderers slash rapists came and then they fought a bit and she remembered hitting something with the hind leg of a roasted hog…

They were captured!!! And being the sensible 17 year blond, she did the most expected thing for her to do- scream bloody murder.

And while still screaming she got out of the shitty stiff bed that made her back stiff and started banging on the metal prison-like door.

"Get me outta here!!" she yelled in Japanese vigorously. "I haven't done anything to deserve this! I want a lawyer and some sushi! And Noodles! And sake!!!!"

The door abruptly opened and she fell on her butt on the ground. She whimpered in pain and small tears appeared at the corner of her eyes. She saw a pair of ninja sandals and she looked up to see an intimidating looking ninja that went with the pair of ninja sandals. She gulped audibly.

"Shut up." He ordered and closed the door.

"And don't forget the sake!" she yelled fiercely in an attempt to regain some of courage.

He opened the door again and pointed a kunai at her threateningly.

"Don't make me repeat myself, brat."

"Meanie!" she sniffed. And cuddled her knees closer to her chest.

The ninja rolled his eyes and closed the door again.

In another part of the same dungeon two crystal blue eyes opened. The first thing that came to the sleepy girl's eyes was how loud Fia could be. The blonde had the lungs of an opera singer…and the voice to back them up.

Then the black-haired girl processed the fact she was kidnapped. Unlike Fia, she did not move. They might be watching her. Slowly, she closed her eyes and pretended she was asleep again. She could wait for an opening. She was patient. Despite her worry for Fia and Rose, she knew that right now she couldn't do anything. Timing was her only hope for escape right now. She heard footsteps closing in on her cell and she held her breath. The steps stopped right in front of her cell. After a while the steps went away.

She had time to meditate upon what had happened. Those were ninjas. No matter how she looked at it…they were screwed. Even if she managed to escape somehow, they would surely capture her again. At least she had a moderate idea where they were: Rain Country. After all those ninja she fought had Rain Hitai-ate's and combined with the rainy weather and the woods…it was quite obvious. She might be wrong but she doubted that.

There was the other problem with L-chan's Rinnengan lens. They were hard to remove but not that hard…what if it was real? She had no idea. She hoped Rose was ok. And she also hoped she would wake up tomorrow morning with some weird headache, back in Tifa's house.

\-------------------------------------------------

Rose woke up to find matching Rinnengan eyes at a nose's length from her face. She jumped with a start but she felt someone hold her by the shoulders.

"Who are you?" the man's voice was strict, demanding respect.

She finally recognized him. It was Pein. The one she cosplayed. Her heart skipped a beat and she gasped at him. He had all of the piercings and his Rinnengan…

"Who are you?" he repeated as if there was something really urgent. He seemed desperate to know.

She was in a bit of a stupor. Was it possible…could it really be?

"ANSWER ME!" the grip on her shoulders tightened and got her out of her shock induced stupor.

"R-rose. Romano Rose." She answered following the Japanese way of saying names.

He seemed satisfied as his grip loosened but he still stared at her. She found herself staring at him as well. His eyes were so unreal. Suddenly he moved away, breaking the weird spell cast upon them. He walked about. Pein seemed so anxious. She couldn't blame him. She felt her own emotions so confused- she didn't know whether to laugh or to hug him happily and many other things.

They were in the Narutoverse! Now she needed to know WHEN exactly they were.

At the other side of the room Pein was in no better shape. Were they spies ? Where did they find Akatsuki cloaks? And why did she even look like him? Why did she possess the Rinnengan? And what about the other two girls? He was sure he heard one of them scream and then yell obnoxiously.

WHAT was going on? And should he tell Madara? It wasn't that important…yet…


	6. Chapter 6

Takeshiro was your average Rain ANBU Captain. He had a wife and two kids and he worked in the security department… of sorts. His job was to understand new enemy technology and weapons. And right now, in front of him, was his greatest enigma- a rectangular black box with a strange writing in gold on top of it. What was so important to be locked up like that? He had spent 3 days trying to tinker with every nook or cranny, with every single bolt or small opening he found. Nothing. He started using more aggressive methods. Banging didn't work. He even used several powerful jutsus but ended up heating the most outer layers of the object and it burning a hole through the wooden table.

At day 5 he was still as desperate to know what was inside. And so were his superiors. There was a rumor that their God had even called back one of his best to try and decipher this enigmatic and most peculiar object.

If Akasuna no Sasori wasn't able to open it, then only the owner was… and she wasn't cooperational when it came to the black box. Takeshiro had only found out the name of the box and the meaning of the writing on top of it- The Bible.

As any good ninja, he was sure that whatever was inside, was more precious than gold. At least he wanted to know the material used to make something so resilient to… well, so far everything.

It was raining. Again. And it was starting to get on her nerves. In the course of one week she hadn't been visited by anyone but some guy with creepy looking ANBU with a tiger mask. He turned out to be quite ok in her opinion. Not that he chatted about general stuff with her. She just got that vibe. He was very polite and diplomatic and even during interrogation he made sure not to scare her.

As far as she understood from his questions, he was tinkering with her Bible. At first she was extremely irritated. She hated when people even TOUCHED it without her permission. She had spent about 10.5 million euro to turn her dad's old lap top into the ultra super awesome supercomputer it was today. How she got those funds was a less than noble secret involving her hacking skills and her incredible genius and the black market from which she got the plutonium battery. The only people who knew how awesome her Bible was were the inner circle of the AFC and even they knew little of the vast info stored in its memory.

Now, the black box weighed around 10 kg, given that the plutonium and 10TB of space just answered to the laws of Gravity. Due to the fact she always brought it with her people tended not to notice it… not at first that is. But the Bible was not just space, plutonium and the Full edition of Britannica Encyclopedia- it also contained several military secrets, including schematics of various weapons like A-bombs, guns and that sort of things. And, of course, everything about the AFC. And if Fia hadn't been as paranoid as she was then the Narutoverse would've been in big trouble.

It was Wednesday by her calculations… and by her digital "super-tinkered" spy watch as she sometimes proudly dubbed it. In the course of one week, Fia had managed to find an unhealthy interest in counting the seconds. Her usually contained insanity, paranoia and ability to annoy people were at its fullest. She wanted to RAMBLE. To talk about anything and with anyone. And Takeshiro was going to come soon to interrogate her. Oh the joy.

The door of her cell opened. It was Takeshiro. Their way to the interrogation room was silent. But it was just the calm before the storm. Poor Takeshiro did not know that he had a chance hazard time bomb on his hands, ready to explode about anything she thought about.

As soon as they entered the Interrogation room it started.

"This room is too gray. Gray is bad for karma and karma is always a bitch."

Takeshiro did not react.

"Creamy pale colors would do it better justice… and a painting would be nice as well. Possibly a Van Gogh replica. The one with the sun flowers. Do you like flowers? They're nice. I like all kinds of flowers but I hate gardens. They're too troublesome to take care of. So I buy flowers in pots when I get the chance. Do flowers grow nicely here? It's very rainy and cold but I think at least something has to persevere through this climate. Maybe small Alpine type of flowers? Anyways, the food is horrible in the dungeons and I want better food with better quality and quantity. Do you eat that kind of food every day? I don't think so. And WHERE is my sake? I've been trying to get some for the past week and I believe it is about time for someone to bring me some.

Do you know where I can get some tampons? I think MJ's period is going to come in a few days. And she is a horrible PMSer. You know? There was this one time when we were going to this convention and she was PMSing. Seriously creepy and murderous…"

And the rant went on. Poor Takeshiro could not react nor make her stop. But he did learn that the black haired girl's period was exactly 14 days, 17 hours and 28 minutes, she was an artist, and that the blond kid had won some amount of money by fighting something called a saltwater crocodile in some "Kaka Do?" park.

The rant ended some one and a half hour later. And the interrogation started. As always, Takeshiro found it hard to make her stop looking around absent-mindedly and listen to him and he found it even harder to make her answer in some way he could understand. She would always add a looong comment about his appearance or about her captivity or complain about the more then good conditions in the cell rooms. And when he actually did get answers to his liking, they would always confuse him even more. For example:

"Are you a ninja and what is your ninja village?"

"I'm a ninja-wanna-be and I don't have a ninja village! I live in the City of Love!"

Needless to say, stress levels were high in such days for poor Takeshiro-taichou.

In another part of this peculiar building, a certain black-haired girl was practicing yoga. At least she appreciated how good the conditions were and did not complain. When interrogated, she answered calmly, with short sentences. Her answers were also slightly vague but in a very subtle way, making her interrogator highly doubt that they were just some normal group of girls. She also seemed very disciplined both physically and mentally, which made the ANBU tingle with unease. They did not seem to express any ninja training but here they were, fondling with ANBU interrogators who had strict orders NOT to do them any harm. It was almost impossible to get any information out of them. Said nameless ANBU felt very sorry for her ANBU Captain, Takeshiro-taichou, who had to deal with the crazy blond bimbo in the other part of this "dungeon" as she put it. She even noticed a few gray hairs on Takeshiro's otherwise raven black hair.

MJ stretched one last time before standing up. She looked out the window and looked about the town that vaguely reminded her of the movie Metropolis with its tall metal-covered buildings. She knew where they were. They were in Amegakure no Sato. So, Fia turned out to be right after all. Jessica found it extremely hard to believe it that they were truly in the Narutoverse. But with every single day that belief seemed to fortify itself ever more stably.

Even though the girl looked calm, on the inside she was terrified. They were in Akatsuki territory and they did not know WHEN they were. What if they were after Jinchuuriki? What if they had no chakra? What if they HAD chakra but it was alien to the one here? What was going to become of them? And what of Hatorri and Tifa? Unlike them, Hatorri was a boy and MJ was sure he was an exact copy of Sasuke or at least very Uchiha-looking. She feared for his life the most.

Unlike them, Rose was not in a cell. She was in her own apartment. And she spent her time chatting with Pein. He was acting rather childishly in her opinion, but who can blame him? He thought he was the only One, but now there were two like him- himself…and her. And she wasn't herself either. The poor L-chan was confused as well. At first it was just excitement. Now they were still examining each other and she felt it was getting old. Especially when they mirrored each other's movements. It was weird and creepy. They even drank coffee/tea with the same movements and expressions. But what really intrigued her was that she did not look like Yahiko… the Pein she cosplayed. She looked like Nagato, as Konan, in their brief meeting, had commented. She said they were almost like twins…speaking of Konan. She looked like Malena. But her skin was a bit more pale. She lived in rainy Rain. And Malena lived in sunny Spain. Oh joy, it rhymes. Hence the difference in skin tones. But they looked exactly like each other. Except Konan was slightly thinner and fitter. And Malena had two children. Two very cute children. Hence wider pelvis.

For now, Rose was trying her best not to anger Pein in any way. He didn't speak anything about her two comrades. He only said that he had ordered no harm to come to them in any way. Rose sighed. She wanted to see them. It wasn't that she was really worried. Not at this point. MJ knew how to take care of herself. On the other hand Fia was …well… Fia- your friendly neighborhood chance hazard time bomb. Meaning that with her around and her antics, anything could happen, ranging from broken china to intergalactic mega wars. The last being influenced by Fia's phobia of celestial objects.

On the other hand, she felt like she had won a special prize from a really awesome contest- spending the week with her idol. She could even bet he displayed his false leadership like she did- with style and steel. Pein entered the room she was in. Currently Madam Leader was reading a history book, albeit heavily occupied with thoughts concerning her fellow Otaku's.

"Rose."

"Yes, Leader-sama?"

"I have decided to let you and your two comrades stay and live with us. In exchange you will help me with my pursuit of world peace."

\-------------------------------------------------------

*Flashback*

Amegakure, three days earlier

The Yahiko Pein was circling about a standing Rose. She was trying to be as calm as possible. What was going on? Why wasn't he ordering their deaths? She wanted to be in Tifa's house real badly right now, Rose realized, along with MJ and Fia.

"How old are you? Where do you come from? I want to know everything. And do not lie to me. I will know if you try to deceive me and you and especially your friends will suffer the consequences."

"As you know, I am Romano Rose. Leader of a non-political organization- The AFC. I am 25 years old. I've recently finished Harvard and now I am a lawyer alongside my father and mother. They're both lawyers and I am a fifth generation lawyer." Rose paused. Should she tell him where she was from? Where the three of them were from? She was anxious about it mainly because it was not everyday news someone told you they came from an entirely new planet.

"Do continue."

"I do not know if you know where exactly I come from." She started vaguely. Maybe she could tell him where they came from WITHOUT telling him where they came from.

Pein narrowed his eyes. He disliked empty words.

"I am from New York. And MJ is from London. Fia comes from Paris." She almost added 'the City of Love' but stopped herself. It was an inner joke they had in the organization. Saying things like that in a dramatic fashion.

"I have never heard of these places. Where are they? They're obviously not part of the Elemental Continent."

"Then we really far away from home…" Rose added quietly for good measure." As I told you earlier, Leader-sama, we just woke up in the middle of no where…I do not know how we got here."

"I will believe you for now. I think you understand I have the upper hand here, Rose-san. Do not tempt me change my hospitality towards you and your…comrades."

And with that the interrogation continued. She felt lucky for being a lawyer. She handled most of his question easily. For once she was glad she followed the steppes of her family, as she wanted to become a veterinarian. Something that her father greatly looked down upon.

"You said you were the leader of an organization. What is this AFC? And what exactly does your organization do?"

"We're not ninja. But generally we do performances, raise money for charity…that kind of thing. We're quite popular if I dare add."

"I see. So there is no reason for me to try and gather more information for this…AFC."

"None at all, sir."

"Very well. And by performances, what exactly do you mean? We did find you with Akatsuki cloaks and you DO resemble us." They even had the rings right, he thought but did not add.

"To be honest I have no explanation for that."

"You are lying."

Rose gulped. He was good.

"I do have a theory but it is too far-fetched to be believable. Is that a better way of putting it?"

"Don't play smart with me. I am patient but not foolishly so."

"Listen… sir… I am not trying to play smart with you or anything. At least you know where you are and I am as much in the dark as you are. I have two girls to worry about that are under 18 years of age and on top of that I have no idea how we got here. I am trying to be as helpful as I can, especially regarding the fact that I am not a ninja and neither are my friends."

"And what is that theory you have?"

"That we have been kidnapped and left at the spot we woke up…that's seriously the best explanation I have."

"If you come from so far away that even I do not know where that place is…then how come you possess the Rinnengan and look so much like me? The Rinnengan is of the Elemental country."

"It might be a recurring gene."

"Explain."

"We inherit genes from our parents. And they- from their parents. By means of genetics and biology in general it is easy to conclude that at some point in the past an ancestor of ours must've traveled to my home town or location. Migrations are normal biological occurrences."

Pein narrowed his eyes. It was plausible but something was nudging him, telling him that she was lying. And still, he decided to believe her for now. She was no ninja and therefore, she was not a threat for him or Madara. He had decided a few days ago that he would not tell the dangerous Uchiha about the girls. They were not as grand a discovery as he had first thought. Oh, how wrong he was.

*End of Flashback*

\-----------------------------------------------

 

Madam Leader looked at him with disbelief. It was too easy. Then again she still did not know his terms.

"As strange as it would seem, under normal circumstances you wouldn't have been able to be trained for ninja. But it seems that your chakra systems are not fully developed. They're the same as a newborn's. That means that not only will you learn new jutsu with ease, but you will also quickly adjust to the life of a ninja."

"So you want us to become ninja?"

"Yes and no."

"What do you mean, Leader-sama?"

"The fact you have the chakra systems of newborns is disturbing. And it might go along well with your theory about being kidnapped. I also believe that you may have been experimented on."

"I doubt that, sir."

"How so?" Pein raised his eyebrows.

"Fia suffers severe paranoia. Had we been part of anything of the sort, she would've been the first to yell about it."

"I…see. Still it is very irregular. To continue my previous stream of thought. I do not want you to become ninja, but to train you as such. I believe that you are trustworthy enough to be spies on my account."

"Spies?"

"Yes, Rose-san, spies. I want you to help me find certain individuals. Since you start your training so late in your life, no one would know you. You will not receive ninja status but you will be trained as such. I hope you understand."

Spies? That sounded …well… very conspiracy-like. Did he want them to track down Jinchuuriki? That was going to be easy since they knew WHO the Jinchuuriki were.

"I understand, Leader-sama. Still I do not know if we are the best choice for such a delicate job."

"You will become the best choice."


	7. Chapter 7

The door to her cell slowly opened. Azure eyes blinked open at the sudden brush of cold air from outside her cell. Fia woke up in the position she had fallen asleep last night- in the fetal position, deeply in thought, thinking of ways to escape.

It was, as usual, the masked ANBU that always took her away for interrogations. 'He has my Bible' was the first conscious thing she came up with at the sight of him. For a bit more of a week she got used to her new surroundings. She was now fully and utterly convinced this was Narutoverse. And it wasn't Wonderland. And her "OMG were in Narutoverse"-high was over. She felt groggy, and had a bit of a headache. Frankly speaking, she was completely emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted. She needed MJ. And L-chan. And a big healthy bar of black chocolate.

"Get up." The ANBU (Takeshiro) ordered calmly. She followed silently. Unknown to her, he was taking her to Pein's office where MJ and L-chan were already there.

The walk to the office was awfully silent as Takeshiro mentally noted. Despite himself he preferred the cheerfully annoying bimbo to this slightly disturbing emotional void. Her usually bright azure eyes were now dull with emotional exhaustion. The young blond girl next to him was slightly fidgeting with the hem of her obnoxiously orange jacket. She seemed sad. And it was not her expression but the chakra flares she had. And yesterday he was nearly to the point of committing seppuku from her constant jabbering. He never believed it possible to actually see a person suffer an emotional exhaustion the way this "Fia" did. He had seen people suffer like this before… but this was ridiculous. How can anyone be exhausted from being HAPPY all the time? And she always seemed to find something to amuse herself despite everything. Was this some kind of a trick? Was she really slightly insane as the rumor was going? Or was she Bipolar or something like that. He had no idea but it was disturbing him, an ANBU Captain. He didn't know her that well to make any guess that would be remotely accurate.

And yet again, despite all his training, he turned to look at her, to see any signs for her sudden change in behavior. Did she snap or something? She had no reason to. After all, her two comrades and she had the royal treatment any hostage would ever want to have. And she did not seem the type to snap so easily. She seemed, despite her childish, obnoxious behavior, to be a person of extremely strong will in times of need.

Funnily enough, this girl had become his second greatest enigma, the first being The Bible.

The two of them finally arrived at Pein's office, not that she knew. Something however nagged at him that she actually suspected their final destination's location. As any proper ninja, he ignored that little voice.

Takeshiro knocked twice and a calm, steely voice told them to enter.

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Her ANBU had taken her to some kind of office. The young woman with the ANBU mask was as calm and as ninja-ish as MJ ever imagined herself to be in her most wildest and filled with awesomeness dreams, not that she would ever confess having such in the first place, being the proud and slightly snobbish aristocratic introvert that she was. Since this time the route they had taken was different, MJ guessed that this ANBU woman was taking her to someone of at least some status of leadership. She however did not expect to be taken to no other that the pseudo-leader of Akatsuki, Pein. She nearly squealed at Yahiko's sexy sight but withheld the Fia-induced outburst and instead gasped and then gaped in shock. She was then nearly killed by Rose's breasty hug. When she came to a few seconds later, she returned the hug.

"L-chan!" she had exclaimed happily, albeit quietly, as she was not a loud, but a calm and collected person. It was almost like a family reunion.

Pein remained unfazed by all of this and allowed them a few seconds to see each other before he took up their attention. He was being professional after all.

"Are you alright? Did they interrogate you as well? Have you seen Fia?"

"I'm fine, and yes… and no, but I know that Fia is alright. Leader-sama gave his word not a hair to fall from you. You should be very grateful to him. It isn't everyday that he shows such mercy to strangers like us…especially to strangers like us who might be potential enemies to Ame."

L-chan spoke rather strangely. She never showed such submission and MJ knew they were in deep shit, as she was sure that they were. Jessica allowed herself a glance at Pein's godlike self. It was definitely Yahiko, all right. She knew those orange spikes too well. And the sexy piercings. He was wearing the Trademark Akatsuki cloak, he had the ring too… same as L-chan's. And, despite herself, she gloated at the fact that their own cloaks were MUCH better quality that his own. He probably slightly seethed at that fact himself. Back to reality.

"We should sit down and wait for Fia… I don't think standing like this is very polite." Rose mumbled with a shy, slightly embarrassed smile on her face. She was really good; MJ had to hand it to her. But was she good enough to fool Pein? It wasn't the proper time nor place to think about it. She had to look timid as well. Of all the places in the Naruto-world… to have fallen practically in Akatsuki HQ… and in Cosplay as well… she hated Karma sometimes… but she was sure this wasn't her fault. She ate her veggies, she was kind to animals, she was polite and nice to old people, she even won a couple of World Championship Cups…and she wasn't a pervert. This was definitely Fia's fault. Every Birthday wish, every shooting star wish, every 11:11 wish… every freakin' wish she had ever made for the past 7 years (with a few minor exceptions) was about going here, meeting their favorite characters (for Fia, read Madara and Pein), marrying them off and bearing their off-spring (Read Fia again) or restoring the Uchiha Clan (read MJ *coughItachi-fancough*), or meeting Hatake Kakashi (read Rose).

The two of them sat down on two of the three chairs that were placed before Pein's desk. There were 5 minutes of silence. It wasn't that awkward for a silence but it was still a bit uncomfortable. After all no one would feel comfortable under Pein's freaky Rinnengan gaze…or L-chan's for that matter. MJ finally noticed that her Rinnengan was a slightly darker tone that Pein's. It was the same as her eye-color. How intriguing, she thought.

Someone knocked on the door. And Pein was just getting comfortable on that awesome leather chair of his, MJ had noticed. He didn't seem phased at all. But the black-haired kunoichi-wanna-be was certain he really loved that wonderful chair…and that he felt slightly annoyed at the fact he had to stop being comfortable for a while. Pein's and MJ's gazes met for a millisecond but before she could react…

"Enter." was his steely monotone. It demanded respect and awe. What a surprise, MJ thought sarcastically, he did have a god complex after all… or did he really? She wanted to find out. For all the trouble they had for being in the Akatsuki, the REAL Akatsuki HQ, MJ knew that getting to know the members was probably going to be her goal here, along with saving Itachi, of course. Then again there was the thought of how long they were going to stay here… things started to get ever more complicated for the 16 year old Itachi Cosplayer. She feared the butterfly effect.

The door opened and in came an unknown ANBU along with a very pale, sullen and emotionally voidful Fia. MJ's and L-chan's attention was snapped from the silence towards the newcomer. For Pein, the reaction of the girls towards their fellow girl, Fia, was rather disturbing. In fact, they even seemed rather embarrassed to see her. How weird. He had the feeling something unexpected would happen. And it did.

As Fia entered the office, a few things ran through her mind. First, she needed to find the guy who installed the door. That was some really good door. Second, she noticed MJ and L-chan. Third Takeshiro nodded a goodbye to her and started to leave- she was overjoyed that she made an ANBU give a reaction to her. Third- she saw Pein. Fourth- she had no strength to react in any way. Fifth- the only reasonable thing to do was to… well, feint.

The only signal anyone got was the slight blush that appeared on her cheeks. With a quiet "Wow!" of a sigh she dropped on the ground out cold. She just couldn't handle the awesomeness of all 5 said things at the same time. It was something she did not do often, but also something that was fully expected of her by those who knew her for more then 5 years like MJ and L-chan. It was pretty simple, really. If a fangirl, given the same circumstances, ends up seeing her friends she worried so much over, then gets a cool nod for goodbye from a hunky tall ANBU and then sees her most beloved character in the entire universe…well you get the idea… said fangirl would feint as well.

Over the years Fia had feinted by means of awesomeness three times before. The first time was when she discovered the amazing properties of Yaoi during Yaoi-con when two extremely sexy bishies made out during a skit. A.k.a. Pein and Madara Cosplayers. True, the one cosplaying Madara WAS a female but that was irrelevant. The relevant part was that Fia was an ultimate Pein and Madara Otaku. And she also got a major nosebleed. She woke up several hours later after that. But not after being taken to the E.R.

The second time she feinted due to extreme awesomeness was when she "accidentally" ended up in the Men's baths during a soccer game. Right after the match. When all the men were butt naked. And smexy. But it was an isolated case of pervyness that she did not repeat. Not at least to the knowledge of MJ or other AFC members. She still proclaimed being a disciple of Jiraya from time to time when they were playing the latest edition of Narutimate Accel at her house. Luckily her parents had no idea who Jiraya was.

The last time she feinted by awesomeness was a year ago during MJ's B-day pool party at her Family's mansion. She had seen MJ's dad in his swimsuit. Actually she had feinted twice in a roll then, because she had woken up to see MJ's dad looming above her, bare-chested. Naturally her eyes rolled back and she had a major nosebleed which made him and his wife freak out (they're doctors). One of the more disturbing facts that MJ knew about Fia was that she liked older men. Around the age of her dad. And the age of "Hiashi" and "Hizashi" the two Japanese twins they stumbled several years back during a trek on the French Alps. They were recruited to the AFC but that's another story.

And to complete this little bit of feinting by awesomeness info, and to explain exactly what happened:

Fia's eyes connected with Pein's Rinnengan. In Fiffie PoV things went like this…

Knew you'd be here tonight

So I put my best dress on

Boy I was so right…

Those 5 seconds of eye contact went extremely slow. He was the most beautiful and fearsome man she had ever seen in her life. Reddish, fiery hair… something that was supposed to be close to the natural version of his Manga Orange spiky hair… his bangs were slightly covering his amazing eyes…

Our eyes connected

Now nothing's how it used to be

No second guesses…

Azure and Rinnengan lingered on each other…

Track in on this feeling

Pull focus close up you and me

Nobody's leaving…

Her heart sped up. She could feel her throat tightening, she could feel butterflies… no, Gnovibrators more like it, in her stomach.

Got me affected

Spun me 180 degrees

It's so electric…

She eyed what she could see of him discreetly. He was so ghastly pale, Yahiko, that is. But that made him even more magnetic to her. The blonde felt how heat was spreading all over her. And she could see him naked with her Inner eye. In her mind there was no one in the office but the two of them. She saw him slowly stripping. She was also slowly stripping…

Slow down and dance with me

Yeah, slow

Skip a beat and move with my body

Yeah, slow

Come on and dance with me

Yeah, slow

Skip a beat and move with my body

Yeah, slow

Don't wanna rush it

Let the rhythm pull you in

It's here so touch it…

And a millisecond later her mind did an overload…

Knew you'd be here tonight

So I put my best dress on

Boy I was so right

Our eyes connected

Now nothing's how it used to be

No second guesses

Track in on this feeling

Pull focus close up you and me

Nobody's leaving

Got me affected

Spun me 180 degrees

It's so electric

Slow down and dance with me

Yeah, slow

Skip a beat and move with my body

Yeah, slow

Come on and dance with me

Yeah, slow

Skip a beat and move with my body

Yeah, slow

Don't wanna rush it

Let the rhythm pull you in

It's here so touch it

You know what I'm saying

And I haven't said a thing

Keep the record playing…

Slow down and dance with me

Yeah, slow

Skip a beat and move with my body

Yeah, slow

Come on and dance with me

Yeah, slow

Skip a beat and move with my body

Yeah, slow…

Yeah… MJ thought, she knew her best friend too well. She was probably still humping the poor man. At least she hadn't nosebled. THAT would've been disastrous. So much for trying to follow the rules- Don't feint, don't explode (fangirl'splosion), don't nosebleed. At least she tried…

She could almost feel the muffled sound of "Slow" by Kylie Minogue. She shook her head to rid of the weird thought.

To cut a long story short, Fia feinted, L-chan pretended everything was normal, but there was a small popped vein on her left temple, and MJ was facepalming, too embarrassed and irritated to let the world, a.k.a. Pein, see her face.

And Pein merely turned to L-chan with the cold semi-glare of "Explain, please." Oh joy. Well, here it goes.

"She is sensitive."

"I…see."

Awkward.

After five minutes she was still there lying on the cold ebony floor. Pein decided it was needless to wait and so he started to sort of explain things to them.

"As you might guess, I have spoken with your…leader… and the two of us reached an agreement."

MJ listened intently as his attention was towards her in this case. She was almost certain that there was no agreement but something of the sort "Agree or die". They were in a Ninja world now. A world she had practically studied and theorized about.

"The three of you shall train to become my spies and work for me." He stated simply.

That was too good to be true. Then again training never meant they were going to go by this easy… especially Fia… She used to be extremely athletic until her stupidity brought her to a hospital bed and she had recuperated for nearly two years up to this day. She still had feint tooth marks from where that salt croc had bitten her… She nearly shuddered… Fia wasn't even allowed to jog as the rest at her school as her ribs were yet to fully heal.

"Forgive me for interrupting, Leader-sama."

Pein glared at Rose.

"But I hadn't the chance to tell you earlier that one of us is not of prime condition to…"

"I know that your blond friend is not physically fit but that would be …"

"She suffered an accident a few years back and she is still recovering."

This time he even added some Killer Intent.

"My medic nin will look it up."

Like that would solve anything, MJ mentally groaned. Fia was a living, breathing Human-sloth girl. The only time she would do anything physical was usually hyper induced.

"I have set up to give you apartments in which the three of you will leave. They are small but are next to each other and are close to my headquarters. I hope you appreciate what I am doing for you." Voice of steely killer intent. Scary.

"We do, Leader-sama, we are very grateful." Rose nodded her head.

"Dismissed."

MJ picked up Fia, seeing his complete disinterested towards her and by the time the two girls even thought about heading out of the office, the two ANBU that had been interrogating MJ and Fia entered and escorted them out of the building.

As they reached their new home for the time being, MJ was slightly panting, and obviously irritated. Not only did the ANBU not help her by carrying Fia, who was, by the way, 65 kilo's of dead weight and boobs, but they also walked faster than them, causing the red head and her to jog from time to time to catch up. She hadn't asked for help. She was too proud. But she already disliked them. Her only hope was that the apartments would be at least decent…


	8. Chapter 8

Seventh floor of a 10-story building. Their apartments were on the same floor and technically they had the entire floor to themselves. True to his word, Pein indeed had given them three small apartments in a block not too far away. It looked in a better shape than most, they even dared think luxurious. It was when they had reached the seventh floor (via elevator, duh) when the two ANBU had left them. The three of them had yet to get their belongings and Rose regretted not having asked for them. MJ seemed fairly irritated but the sight of their now new home made her feel better. She left Fia against a wall with an "Oomph!" sound. Her back ached horribly, not to mention the shoulder on which she carried Fia.

Rose tried the key to the closest door and opened it up. It was interesting to see a fairly light, simple setting. The walls were in creamy white pastel for a color. There were no pictures but a few would have been perfect for the hall. There was a living room, a bedroom, separate toilet and bathroom and a nice looking kitchen with new appliances.

The living room and the kitchen were separated by a tall arch. The living room consisted in what seemed to be two parts- dining part and "living room part". The dining part consisted of a table with six chairs, and the living room part was made up from a sofa, a coffee table and a TV, much to their relief. The entirety of the setting was typically Japanese in style but modern, as they observed the appliances. The TV wasn't anything special; it was a large normal big TV with a big screen. Fia would probably twink with whatever is technologic in her room once she woke up, MJ mused. Speaking of the blonde, she was brought in and placed in the bedroom.

And in the bedroom the bed was double sized. With nice white sheaths that were scented of fresh laundry. Ah, how MJ loved that smell. And she knew that Fia did as well. It was one of the most comfortable things for them, to wake up to the smell of spring flowers, fresh mountain breeze or the refreshing scent of the ocean. It was a homey smell that the two of them came to adore after traveling so much around the world in the pursuit of Anime Conventions. Strange, though, how this place already felt like home. The black haired girl felt a pang of sadness hit her. She missed home. And she missed her parents. She missed Hatorri and his interesting, witty remarks. She even missed Leopold, a.k.a. Light. She missed the Earth.

There were going to be several hours before her blond friend was to wake up. In that time they could get accustomed to their new home. It was kind of stupid to give them three apartments, but maybe it was for the best. Still, knowing the background of the country they were in, made her feel uncomfortable with all the luxury they were provided with. Maybe Pein was trying to fool them into false sense of security. Whatever the reason they had to keep their guard up and, to some extent, play the part of the clueless damsels.

The black haired girl went over to L-chan who was in the living room, watching TV. The TV channels were not many. Just 10 channels, including a sports channel, as her red haired companion was now watching something similar to "Kunoichi of the year".

"What's that?" MJ asked, tilting her head to the side. It had been some time since she had last watched TV. And this seemed very interesting. It was Ninja TV after all.

"Some idiot is trying to pass these booby traps." L-chan answered, referring to the busty looking short bimbo with dark brown hair and green eyes.

The said woman slipped badly and the crowd went "Ooooh!" at her painful fall.

"Wow." L-chan started sarcastically." A booby trap that actually captures boobies."

"Wisdom of Optimus Prime. It's like the January Sun. It's bright but cold." Added MJ.

They continued watching TV for several hours during which several ninja came and gave them part of their stuff, some provisions and money to buy new clothes tomorrow. It was late afternoon when Fia finally woke up. And she woke up by the smell of overcooked onigiri.

"There's too much salt in the rice!" she yelled from the bedroom in irritation. She hadn't completely woken up yet. She was awake, true, but not completely comprehending of her surroundings. She could only register that L-chan had tried to cook something. Were they that desperate to eat? She had to fix something for …dinner? When did it get so dark? She looked about in confusion. It was a new environment…hmmm…. The smell of fresh laundry…. She deeply inhaled the scent of the bed covers and then stood up. She felt sleepy and still groggy but the scent of home lingered about her. She felt happy and comfortable.

Fia stood up and stretched in every possible direction, possibly cracking every single joint in her body.

"Ah…that felt good" she murmured in mid-stretch.

As soon as she felt ready to walk, she headed out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen.

"Yo." She said lazily, Kakashi style." Where are we?" She asked, secretly hoping and yet afraid of the answer. What if they were back home and this was all a weird, long dream?

There was this one time she thought there were transformers but after a month of it turned out to be this major gag with her paranoia. Was funny as hell though. And she couldn't keep grudges anyways, so she laughed her ass off… eh, those were the pioneer days of Cosplay.

"Oh, this is one of the apartments that Pein-sama gave us." MJ answered. She was sitting on top of the kitchen shelves.

"Wha?" There was something weird, Fia noted. Now she was fully aware. It was good to know at this point that they were speaking in English. MJ NEVER referred to Pein as "sama". The blonde then remembered everything that happened. And her eyes widened…and watered.

"Oh, hell no." MJ simply inserted two fingers in her ears. And just in time too as Fia started wailing uncontrollably.

"Whyyyyyyyyy!" she wept. And wept. And occasionally sniffed and wiped away tears and other liquids of bodily origins from her face.

Rose had enough and inserted the wooden spoon she was using to steer the rise in her mouth. Luckily, it wasn't that hot but shut her up.

"Fia, don't worry. You'll get to see him plenty of times. He wants to train us as his spies! We will be ninja! It's ok! Don't cry…though you did give him a VERY bad first impression" The red head lawyer added the last part in a barely audible fashion.

Fia stopped wailing, spoon still in mouth, and perked up at the words spies, ninja, and generally "He wants"… Selective listening ability anyone?

"Weawy?" she said, wooden spoon still in mouth.

MJ got off the counters and plopped the spoon out with a popping wet sound out of her mouth.

"Yeah! Really." Phew, disaster alluded, she thought. And then she looked at the wooden spoon apprehensively and cautiously placed it in the sink. Yew… spit…. The black-haired girl shuddered.

"OMG! Yay!" the hyper and obviously bipolar blonde started jumping up and down, happily squealing at the prospect of being ninja. Then she suddenly stopped.

"Does he know that we're from a different dimension?" she asked.

"Oh no. Are you crazy? That would change everything." Said MJ

"Then why did he make us ninja? There is something off about it."

Despite being awfully childish, Fia was respected. That was because of her unmatched intellect and amazing insight. There were many things that Fia was, one of them being smarter than Shikamaru by light years. And she was strange like that.

"Oh, will you enlighten us? You're standing like a statue for five minutes now." MJ exclaimed in irritation.

"Sorry." Fia started." It's just this- Pein does not know who we are. And he just made us spies out of the blue."

"He said he finds us trustworthy." Said Rose.

"Not that we aren't and not that we never wanted anything like this… but have you thought about the possibility that he might have some off-the-record mastermind plan going on?"

"I hate to say this, but for once your conspiracy spoiled fermented brain is actually right about a conspiracy."

Fia glared pointedly at MJ.

"So, what do you suggest, Fia? You and Tifa are the only ones who can actually be helpful in something like this." Rose's voice sounded slightly strained. She was worried. Who wouldn't be, really?

"First, we need to make a list with the pro's and cons of all of this."

MJ rolled her eyes.

"We're not that stupid Fia."

"That way we won't forget anything. For example, I want you to tell me what happened with any of you. We need a list of the questions, and I need to make up plausible theories of whatever they might want with us. I also have to figure out WHEN exactly are we…."

"Let's find some paper." Suggested MJ, ignoring Fia's unending rambles. Rose nodded and the two of them left.

Naturally, forgetting the rice on the stove.

A few moments later a loud, irritated yell was heard. They were going to clean up the burnt rice, Fia thought. She simply took out some ingredients and started preparing something for dinner.

Cooking was a very interesting thing. And it was one of the things with which Fia physically excelled at. MJ sucked at cooking and L-chan knew how to stir scrambled eggs well enough to not poison herself.

After surviving the self-induced accident two years ago, she had spent a lot of time home. And as soon as she was able to get out of bed, she had to find something to amuse herself. And she did, actually.

She didn't remember what made her wrestle the 12 meter long saltwater crocodile. But she knew it wasn't the 10 000 dollars the man had offered on a joke. It was one of those things that she would never ever repeat… due to the stupidity of it all.

Anyway, during her stay in the hospital she had her entire right side bandaged up. Apart from the jaw-like scars, she had her right arm and leg broken in several places and a few cracked and 3 broken ribs. She was lucky to have recovered so well. And it was partially because of MJ's dad's amazing skills. He was a plastic surgeon, and one of the best at that. And in these two years of recovery she had gained a lot of weight which she was still trying to lose. Not that she complained about it. She occasionally went to plastic surgery to remove even more scars. She had, however, insisted to keep some of the bite marks from the croc on the front side of her body…

Fia, to explain, did a lot of stupid things. And got away with it, either because of her amazing brain power, or because of her amazing luck. And it was her amazing luck that had saved her from the croc. She had only clean wounds, so to speak, saving her from having to endure horrible scars and lack of bits of flesh on some places.

And why was this relevant? That accident was the main reason why she was not a rabid fangirl anymore. It was because of it that she had to be home-tutored for a year and it was also the reason for her amazing cooking skills and her love for survival skills. She used to be an in-doors person. Now, she loved the wilderness.

From the whole ordeal, Fia had gained two very important skills. One was her cooking, which helped her battle with a possible depression and the other skill was…well, darts.

Well, it did start out with darts. Being the violent and hyper person, sitting wrapped up was something horrible for her. And, out of pity, her parents had brought her a Darts board. They could've brought her The Bible, she had bitterly thought then, but she just couldn't risk it. She still remembered how right before she passed out from pain and blood loss she had pulled MJ to herself with her good, left, arm and had whispered to hide The Bible. It was her most precious possession.

As said earlier, it had started with darts. And she was the hospital's all-time champ after just a week of 24/7 practicing. Before the Accident, as she called it, she ate 5 pounds of sugar worth of candy and food in general. And she either slept for days, or did not sleep at all. She was also a rapid fangirl. Of the worst, and most obsessive kind. Generally she was what MJ now referred to as her dark side, her gamer/rapid fangirl side. She was slightly evil and scary. And you don't mess with a genius like that.

But people do change and she was a proof for that. Maybe. And so, the darts skill later turned into Everything pointy and sharp type of skill, especially when it came to kitchen knives.

Back to reality. Fia used her time cooking to muse over the potential risk of them being spies. She hoped they would be good at it but right now she knew nearly nothing about the whole situation and she needed to literally interrogate MJ and L-chan about it. It was almost like a sort of puzzle which she needed to set. And she needed a pen and some paper… or a notebook…

\--------------------------------------------

During dinner Fia kept asking them questions. What was Pein like? What kind of questions did he and the ANBU asked MJ and L-chan. That sort of thing. After half an hour MJ had enough.

"Fia, can we at least eat in peace?" she asked trough gritted teeth.

"Jess, let her be. You know its our best bet." Rose sighed. It was for the best, she guessed.

Everything was neatly written down in a notebook they had found in one of the drawers. By 12 o'clock she had almost everything she needed to start her work, a.k.a. theorizing.

By that time MJ and L-chan were long asleep in the double bed in the bedroom.

It is now a perfect time to add that they were constantly watched over by Takeshiro's ANBU team. And Fia's activities were extremely interesting for them.

The blond had started off with their location. She had found a civilian's map of the village that would be put to use by her. She wished she had her Bible with her. It would have been easier to look up the data she had on Amegakure and Ame in general but her photographic memory would just have to do the trick. She knew everything there could be known about anything concerning the Narutoverse.

And so, she began digesting the data she had at this point. She could practically see in front of her eyes the info she had on Amegakure for Narutopedia.

'Amegakure (雨隠れの里, Amegakure; Literally meaning "Village Hidden in Rain"), also known as Hidden Rain Village, is a small yet highly industrialized hidden village located in an unnamed country. It seems to be a rather loosely knit village, befitting the destabilized country, as a fair number of its ninja seem to either be missing-nin or end up as missing-nin, as the infamous Akatsuki leader Nagato and his partner Konan originate from this village. Its symbol is composed of four parallel vertical lines, resembling rain.'

Indeed, Amegakure had this slightly post-apocalyptic look to it, especially with the bad weather and the grey, metal-covered buildings. She sighed.

'Lacking a Kage leader, Amegakure was once led by Hanzo, though he was killed during the village's civil war by the Akatsuki leader, Nagato. Nagato then used the village as his base of operations for Akatsuki and reigned as an enigmatic godlike figure over the townspeople. Shinobi loyal to Nagato wore an Amegakure headband with a horizontal slash through the middle, similar to that of Nagato. Those loyal to the former Amegakure attack the village on occasion in an attempt to assassinate Nagato, though their efforts are never successful.

Due to its geographic location, Amegakure has served as the battlefield for the various ninja wars, the Second Great Shinobi World War being especially damaging. This has led to a heavily isolationist policy for the village, with its leaders rarely being seen in public. Due to all this, the people of Amegakure are very cautious and Amegakure itself has adopted a strict policy of security. Even immigrants are searched and are required to submit their information and are kept under surveillance 24/7. This policy holds even when Amegakure hosts the Chunin Exams.

After the death of Nagato, Konan swore Amegakure's allegiance to Naruto Uzumaki, indicating that she has taken the place of village leader.'

As far as she could understand at this point, the 'ANBU' they had seen were one of Pein's ninja. And that meant their Hitai-ate's were scratched like his. Kinda self-explanatory. Fia puffed in annoyance. At least she was sure they were under surveillance all the time. And why did Pein let them stay despite the tight security? She felt very uneasy with the thought of his supposed secret grand master plan.

And what of Pein's personal (figuratively speaking, since he has…what? 10 bodies?) interrogation of L-chan? Since he is so egotheistical, she could understand his reaction to L-chan's appearance. Maybe, if they played their cards right, they could convert him to the good side earlier than in Shippuuden? The blonde snorted at the idea. Like they were that Mary Sue to make him supposedly fall in love with all of them and then miraculously they defeat Madara's sexy phantom self and Naruto is proclaimed Sekai Kage out of the blue. Ah, dreams.

And still, there actually was a chance of that happening. No, not the whole of it- just making Nagato a good guy earlier. After all, you are a god among insects and you believe… no, you THINK you know you are the One, and suddenly three chicks appear out of no where and one of you has your powers. There goes the God Complex. Maybe that was why he allowed them to stay and actually train them for spies/ninja.

And that thing about having the chakra system of a new born? She had practically laughed out loud (lol'ed) like a mad scientist slash evil nemesis type of villain a.k.a. Master of all EVIL. I mean, think of the possibilities… all those jutsus she knew on theory… all those jutsus she would create… and then she remembered she had to play dumb. Eh, karma was a bitch slap on the boobs sometimes. Nasty, ne?

Still, the thing that worried her most was why they look like, well, their Cosplay. If L-chan had Rinnengan, that meant that MJ was an artificial Uchiha and she was either Kyuubi or Naruto WITH the Kyuubi. And she needed to find out what exactly she was…

And this, my friends is the reason why AFC always say "Don't cross Cos." In a case such as this Fia had hundred of things to ponder about. To name just a few:

If she was Kyuubi, then why wasn't she in Naruto's belly? Was it possible to be OUTSIDE his belly? Did she have nine tails of supreme awesomeness? Where were the nine tails? And if she was 'Naruto' then did that mean that they shared the same Kyuubi? Did they have a separate Kyuubi? What if there were now TWO Kyuubi Jinchuutiki's and one of them was under Akatsuki's nose?

It was near dawn when she came up with the most brilliant idea for the entire ordeal. They would go shopping and then they would visit Pein.

Usually, she would hate shopping, but this was going to be ninja shopping. Thinking about it, she decided that they should visit Pein first and ask him about what they should buy. Not that they didn't know but they had to play their part, right?

It was 6 am and Fia stretched tiredly. She needed some sleep. The blonde stood up from her chair and just as she was, in an oversized Orange cotton T-shirt, she snuggled in between MJ and L-chan on the bed and fell asleep immediately. Today was going to be an interesting day.


	9. Chapter 9

The day had started earlier than MJ wanted it to start, especially when a clumsy blonde makes attempts to squeeze in between her and L-chan. It was a rather tight fit with Rose's already plentiful breast space and adding up another busty person was a bit too much, she guessed. That little distraction was not what had woken her up however. When her best friend had rustled herself in, she had merely woken up MJ for a few seconds. The black-haired girl's sleepiness took over and she was asleep again for a few more hours. It was the fact that she really wanted to pee that woke her up. As soon as she woke up she headed to the bathroom. And her two comrades used her absence to spread themselves accordingly to the newfound empty space on the bed.

MJ had had many sleepovers similar to what was going on now and that didn't surprise her. She merely sighed sadly. She could've done with more sleep. Jessica turned her way to the living room and turned on the TV. Who knew ninja had one of those morning type of news shows? Anyway, MJ was watching quietly the TV. It was kinda interesting to her because ninja TV included the latest dangerous additions in the bingo book. It was funny how the reporter, obviously a civilian, knew absolutely nothing about anything more than the currently commented ninja was a dangerous person.

It wasn't that hard to grasp the fact that in this world normal people knew nothing of the secret deadly arts of the ninja. But it was still pretty funny how normal people were practically in the Dark Age, save for electricity and sophisticated toilets. MJ was kind of surprised that Amegakure had TVs. Thinking about it later, though she finally came to the conclusion that maybe it wasn't as extraordinary as she first thought it would be.

"Heh, horoscopes…pfft." She rolled her eyes when they started rolling away the daily horoscope. Funny thing how the western and eastern cultures were mixed. It was like home… more like what home was like during Anime Conventions… it was kind of strange to just look out the window and actually see people dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and random ninja walking about. It was truly a dream come true, she realized. It was something that she had always wanted, albeit so secretly.

Now, if there was only a certain Uchiha heir that would hold her in his arms… A dark smirk appeared on her gentle face and her eyes glinted in a mischievous manner. Oh how she longed to have Uchiha Itachi in her grasp. And how she long for his strong muscular arms to hold her and…

"Ohayo, MJ!" somebody yelled right in her ear. In a very cheerful fashion. So much for calm and quiet in the morning.

"Morning, Fia." MJ greeted grumpily. At least she was going to have some breakfast. It was around 10:30 am and being up at 9 am had left her feeling slightly hungry. And she dared not to cook… she sucked at it.

\----------------------------------------------------

*Flashback, unknown date*

"MJ, could you break some eggs for me?" Asked your favourite blonde while energetically stirring something in a pot on the stove.

"Sure." The said girl went out of Fia's line of sight. She had exited the kitchen but soon enough returned with a hammer, without Fia noticing, the latter being easy due to the blonde being extremely occupied. As the young blond teen hustled over her spaghetti, the black-haired girl carefully lined up several eggs in a roll. They were perfectly straight, the sharper side 90 degrees of angle to the counter's surface. Never had anyone seen such thing…for obvious reasons.

'WHAM WHAM WHAM! CHING! WHAM! THUCK!'

"MJ, the hey?" Fia had not yet started to swear at that point of time. Still, she was obviously deeply psychologically disturbed. How could something like this happen? Why did it have to be her perfect counter? What kind of a mindfuck does this to eggs!? Was it not humane enough to gently tap them with the blunt of a kitchen knife? Or even break them the old fashion way, by tapping them a few times on the counter surface. Her stark azure eyes were wide, like a deer caught in the headlight, staring accusingly and yet sorrowfully at the hammer wielding, confused-looking, black-haired girl by the name of Michael Jessica Keats.

The poor girl had no idea why Fia had whacked her so hard (the THUCK sound) with the metal spoon, after dropping it on the floor first (the CHING sound). There was a single pitiful strand of spaghetti on top of her head, loosely hanging in front of her left eye.

*End of Flashback*

\--------------------------------------------------

"I feel like pancakes." MJ finally concluded after 10 minutes of contemplating what she wanted to eat. She had had it with Asian food for now. After all, a girl who had taken courses to perfect her cooking skills should not be put to waste.

L-chan also nodded her head. She wanted pancakes as well. Fia, however, wanted something more stable, like beef. Fia overused her cooking skills. Sure, she was known to eat everything in infinite quantities, but she also had an extremely fast metabolism, allowing her to be only slightly plushy and not a big fat cow. The preps at her school still called her that. Regardless, Light a.k.a. Leopold went on dinner with Fia and not with them, and he was the hottest boy in their school. Yes, when concerning Anime and Manga, they were the greatest nemesises one could find. But it was like in football and the football hooligans who supported different teams.

In real life the two of them were close friends and sat next to each other in school. There was even a rumor they had been secretly an item at some point. MJ found it strange, Fia and Leo's relationship that is. They were so close that if she didn't knew better she would've thought they were together in a romantic way. Even if they didn't know or denied it, there was an amazing chemistry between them. And still Leo was openly flirting with L-chan.

The two of them were so like each other. Maybe that was why they could not become an official item, Fia and Leo. Fia was loud and cheerful, and he was calm and collected. Apart from that they were the same. Maybe that connection was something like what Naruto and Sasuke had. One of eternal friendship and eternal rivalry. Something like Magneto and Xavier from X-men. It might be more then that though, because they were a boy and a girl.

They were so tender with each other. Leo, when not in Cosplay was so gentle and warm with Fia. It was not possible for them to be just friends. And asking Fia was not an option, because she didn't know either. It was one of those enigmas that would forever gnaw at her, MJ had long ago realized.

Still, Leo lusted all over L-chan and he did so openly. He was such a husky, sneaky bastard sometimes. Despite all that L-chan said, and denied, she found his infatuation with her very hot. But he was too little for her. Only 17.

"Fia, why cant you settle for just pancakes for once?"

"Because I'm hungry. And a growing girl to boot."

Even in a different dimension some things never changed.

\---------------------------------------------------

Akasuna no Sasori was a man of short temper and also a man who hated Tardiness. And right now he hated Deidara's humanly mortal needs, especially the need to take a dump. They were what? One day away from Amegakure and Deidara just had to eat that last bit of the funky-smelling onigiri which he had in one of his pockets with questionable hygiene. Now both of them were suffering the consequences. AH how Sasori hated waiting or procrastinating in general.

He was so tempted to stab Deidara with Hiruko's tail. He thought against it when he heard another one of Deidara's painful moans. Sasori smirked a bit. His blonde friend got what he deserved.

"Serves you right, brat."

"Don't be so mean, Sasori-Danna, un." His blonde companion answered sternly.

Deidara was crouching behind a bush for over 45 minutes, suffering from what Sasori believed to be diarrhea. Being a puppet meant that he didn't have to end up in such a situation. And being an Akatsuki meant one had to be smart enough to AVOID such a humiliating situation. The brat was still young and despite being an extraordinary ninja, in fact good enough to join Akatsuki, he also had a lot to learn. Like not to eat spoiled food.

Finally, after what seemed forever to Sasori, Deidara emerged from the bushes, buttoning his pants. He took his Akatsuki cloak from atop of Hiruko and put it on. People don't take dumps with their cloaks/ coats/ robes/ etc on.

"Deidara, this has been our fifth stop for today. If you have to go one more time I swear I'll turn you into art eternal, weather you like it or not."

"My art will be better than yours, Danna, because true art is a bang, un." Deidara exclaimed indignantly, not having anything else to say to contradict Sasori.

Sasori did not reply and merely continued forward. He was ignoring his blond brat of a partner. Deidara, known for having a short temper, gritted his teeth.

"Ne, Danna! Wait up, un!" he yelled as he ran to catch up to him.

Several hours and three more stops later, Sasori knew that they were already late. And that alone made him spiffier than usual. Oh joy for poor Deidara. Actually he would've killed the blond but he seemed rather pale and not well at all. Even the lips of his hand-mouths seemed dry. At least he had enough heart not to bother Deidara further about it. Sasori gave credit to the kid for at least trying to take it like a man, but what person could take dumping like the way poor Deidara did like a man?

Being a puppet really had its perks.

"Brat. We had to be at Leader-sama's office an hour ago. You know how I hate it when I wait or somebody waits for me."

"Its not my fault the stupid onigiri was funky, un!"

"Actually it was."

"And what do you want me to do about it? Make a clay bird and fly us over, Danna, un!?" Deidara was also getting angry.

Sasori abruptly stopped. How hadn't they thought about it earlier? Making flying clay birds to transport them swiftly. It was a perfect idea. Not that he was going to tell the brat that. He would never live it down.

"Is there something, Danna, un?" Deidara asked, looking about suspiciously, trying to find any danger.

"Actually, Deidara." Sasori started. Hiruko's head turned towards Deidara and they shared a glance, Scorpion tail swishing idly. "There is."

Sasori had really thought that Deidara would get the hint. No, really. He was almost 100 percent sure he was. Deidara was just standing there waiting. After five minutes of silence, the blond could hear Sasori's exasperated sigh.

"Make a Clay Bird, brat." The puppet master hinted. Wrong move.

Deidara's eyes widened. Was it possible? Had the infamous Aka Suna no Sasori finally administered his art?

"I knew you would see it my way, un." He said happily. In a tone that actually disturbed Sasori. What was wrong with that kid? He just didn't get it. And neither did Deidara. But it had been only a year of being partners. They had a long way to go when it came to synchronizing how their team worked.

"Deidara?"

"Yeah, un?"

"You're an idiot."

\--------------------------------------------------

The rain had finally stopped and the three girls were ready to go outside and do some shopping. To their greatest surprise Pein had sent them a ninja who was going to help them with choosing their training gear amongst other things. Fia, was, obviously, squealing in delight at the prospect of having a real ninja giving them a tour of Amegakure. She was like a child that was opening her Christmas presents. And they were everything she ever wanted on X-mass all at once.

MJ and L-chan were more calm about it, but even the stoic and introvert of a human being MJ was having hard time hiding her happy smile. Her cheeks were slightly rosy by the cold damp air of the after-rain. Her crystal blue eyes were glistening happily.

And L-chan? Well, she had let MJ fix her hair into something as unintimidating as possible. She also wore sunglasses, hiding her Rinnengan from the public. She was also occasionally giving wide grins to her two subordinates. This was going to be fun, and probably cheaper than what they had back at home. Custom made ninja weapons varied in cost and a basic kit of Kunai and Shuriken and Ninja strings was 2 thousand dollars.

She practically couldn't wait to buy REAL ninja clothing. None of them could, seriously.

And who was their guide? Takeshiro, of course.

"Ne, you seem to have caused quite the commotion. It's not everyday we find 3 young maidens such as yourself roaming the woods. You are lucky that nothing happened to you."

Of course, they did not know him. He seemed to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He had a pitch black hair. His eyes were chocolate brown and his skin was pale, a few battle scars marring his naturally handsome face. He seemed to be growing a beard. It was still barely a stubble though.

He seemed so naturally friendly, as if you can tell him your darkest secrets and he would help you. He seemed so trustworthy…Fia tripped. She did that often so MJ and L-chan did not notice it.

T-that's him! She thought, that's the ANBU who interrogated me!

"My name is Takeshiro, by the way. My mission is to make you comfortable and take you around town, if you don't mind of course." He flashed them one of the sexiest friendly smiles they had ever seen.

L-chan and MJ giggled at his open flirtatiousness. Fia couldn't quite grasp it. MJ and L-chan giggling like school girls? No. This has to be a Genjutsu!

"Ne? Are you a ninja, Takeshiro-senpai?" that had to be the most "out of a hentai anime girlie innocent voice" Fia had ever done in her life. Her eyes were all sparkly, the pose was perfect too…

Takeshiro's face grew so red at the blonde's closeness. So kawaii! He laughed apprehensively and pulled away as quickly as he could.

"Why yes…" his voice was suddenly high pitched. He cleared his throat." Why, yes I am!"

"That is so… AWESOME!" she squealed happily and practically double-glomped MJ and L-chan with her strong arms. She hoped the entire ordeal was enough to get them out of the Genjutsu.

MJ blinked a few times, feeling her spine being rearranged. She also noticed the fact that Takeshiro wasn't as friendly looking as she first thought he was. He was still extremely sexy for your average ninja. But was no Uchiha Itachi to make her go fangirl on him.

They walked down the main street and chatted lightly. It was near noon when they had finally decided to sit down and grab some lunch on Takeshiro's expense. As they were entering the restaurant, both MJ and L-chan discreetly jabbed Fia a few times. They knew her too well and she wasn't bellow mooching off of people, especially when it came to free food. And, for their own sake, the redhead and the black haired girl gave her a few girl signs to be polite and not be her usual pig self.

Of course, Takeshiro noticed that. And he also noticed how disappointed the blonde seemed. What a strange bunch of girls. Still, after spending a whole night watching what they were doing he could guess they were trying to spare themselves from Fia's inappropriate behavior.

The four chose a table with a nice view to the street. No one never knew if they might see a passing Akatsuki, right? One of the things that any passer by first noticed about them was how cheerful they were. They also seemed very confident. They were outsiders, it was obvious. Were they ninja? They were so beautiful! Their clothes were strange and their dialect was weird as well. That was a ninja with them…

The three paid no attention to the stares of those around them. They were used to it, thanks to their Cosplay, of course. And this was nothing compared to the hungry stares of the fans. Really, they were fine. Fia was a bit too flamboyant and MJ swatted her now and then to make her stop grabbing everybody's attention. She was as annoying as she could be, but despite how irritating she could be, MJ wasn't really bothered by it. She was so used to it, she probably would start acting like her and be more talkative if she was not around for too long.

Finally, a waitress came and handed out menus. All of them opened them up and Fia knew for sure she was going to order Tobiko Sushi. She wanted her first real official meal to be Tobiko Sushi. You know, Tobiko Sushi, Tobiko Sushi. Looked like a certain orange swirly masked candy man.

Fia smiled happily at the prospect of eating Tobiko sushi and opened up the menu. She was the epitome of happy in that moment. And then came reality check and her happiness broke like a glass window.

"Katakana." She said darkly, lowering her head, her azure sapphires not visible due to a dark shadow that was cast over them.

"Fi?"(Fi is short for Fia, sounded Kawaii!)

"Katakana" she repeated sorrowfully.

"Is anything wrong?" asked a fakely confused looking Takeshiro.

"Bloondie doesn't know Katakana." MJ snickered, while said girl was looming in her depressed emo corner.

"Nani? But she speaks it fluently."

"She learned it by herself. She can speak it but she doesn't read katakana… we need to get her a dictionary…" L-chan sighed.

"Don't worry, Fia. I'll pick food for you. I'll look for the largest meals, don't worry." The Uchiha-look-alike consoled the poor blonde.

For MJ and L-chan, it was extremely funny. She had claimed being an all-knowing genius. To this day, Fia knew French, English, Russian, German and Spanish fluently; she also knew Ancient Greek, Latin and could even read ancient Egyptian. And that was not counting the fictional languages she knew, mainly from the Warcraft fandom and the Lord of the Rings fandom. Yeah, she was a geek like that and having the awesome ultra IQ RAM to boot and all that memory space was perfect for her addictions. It was kind of scary to think she knew so much and she was only 17 years old. For God's sake, she dissected squirrels as a hobby!

Finally having ordered and getting over the embarrassment of not knowing how to read Katakana, Fia and the two other girls looked around. This restaurant was very modern, western looking in Fia's opinion. But what had truly gained her attention was the Karaoke set.

During the entire lunch she had ogled at it hungrily. How she wanted to just go up there and…

"There is a Karaoke stand every night. You can come if you like." Takeshiro had noticed her gaze. He was used to that gaze of wanting something. It was so extremely intent it almost spoke to him. She seemed to be a person who always expressed herself. If anything, he was never dull with these girls. They always seemed to be in good spirits and always made small jokes.

"Ne, Takeshiro-sempai, don't give her any ideas, her singing in the shower is enough." MJ said half-jokingly. No one liked to wake up to a booming, powerful, although enchanting voice, of lets say…Beyonce? In 5 am in the morning.

"Is she that bad? Were you not some type of performers?"

"I am an amazing singer. Its just that when I get up early, I get up really early." Fia smiled shyly. "Some people find it annoying to be woken up by loud noises in 5 am."

There was a pointed glare from MJ.

Soon after they were done with lunch and was now time for shopping. Fia, of course, was the most openly excided of the three and literally bounced off walls. Needless to say she pulled Takeshiro to go faster so they could look at everything. And she knew what she wanted. She wanted everything that screamed NINJA!

Despite his expectations for them to get unpractical clothes, the three of them, including Fia, had chosen rather ok for beginning ninja clothes. Nothing out of the ordinary, he thought. It should be noted that like any other sane man, Takeshiro despised shopping. Right now he was waiting for them to get out of the changing rooms. Rustling and grumps were heard from Fia's boot. She is such a clutz, he had noticed, much to his irritation.

"MJ" she whined from her booth.

"Yeah?"

"Can you come over? My hair-clip got stuck somehow. Im tangled!"

"Give me a sec…where did I put my bra?" MJ mumbled the last part but Takeshiro had heard it. He seemed nearly on the verge to leave them like that and to go outside and take a few smokes. Yet he couldn't.

"Fia, those are my panties!" there was an indignant yelp.

"I'll wash them twice I…" THWAK

"There, fixed." Takeshiro noticed the black haired girl going out of the blonde's booth with a pair of black, red-laced thongs in one hand. She had an aura of smugness about her, but she was still somewhat poker-faced. She would do best as ninja, Takeshiro randomly mused.

Until the late afternoon the four of them were done shopping and now were heading back to that same restaurant. From spending an entire day with them he could only say one thing: Rose-san was a calm, content person with a very leveled character, save for occasional, but understandable moments of severe irritation. MJ was the most ninja-like of them and it was fairly obvious she did lots of training. And Fia… well… if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it. The blond bimbo wasn't just a bouncing ball of energy. That…that THING was pure evil. He was sure of it now. Those otherwise innocently looking eyes were swallowing everything they looked at, examined it, accessed it. At first he thought it was just pure ungodly curiousity. But the way she looked at things. It was creepy and he was an ANBU Captain!

Either she was mental, which he was 90 percent sure of, or she was a very, VERY insightful and cunning. Apart from that she was being a big idiot, bouncing energetically off of walls and annoying the hell out everybody. MJ and Rose were used to it, he guessed. OK, so it was just his ninja instincts about this and gut feelings weren't always right. Conclusion- the girl was not just mental, she was completely and unterly unstable… and by the looks of the way she was now looking at MJ for some smart, witty remark she had made earlier, she was also incredibly violent.

The girls were not wearing their old clothes, but their new ones. They looked more local now, despite how they still were easily separated than the rest.

L-chan was still in a sporty, more ninja-ish fashion and so was MJ. Fia , on the other hand, was wearing traditional clothes, more specifically a black haori rimmed with orange. She had commented something about how Japanese traditional clothing owned, though he didn't get it.

What he did understand was that that girl adored everything of the traditional type. And she had wailed in front of a shop's screen at the sight of a most elaborate red and gold kimono with a phoenix motive on it.

It was an Uchikake. She had made a semi-dramatic vow that she would find a rich guy to marry only to wear that kimono. And then MJ had hit her in the back of the head, mumbling things like "You don't mean it." And "You gave us enough trouble with your spur of the moment wishes." Fia had gotten slightly red and uncomfortable about it and had muttered an apology. Takeshiro was sure there was something about it but when he had asked, Rose had only curtly said it was an inside joke.

He knew she was lying.

"I want the cook's special!" Fia announced, loud and proud.

They all ordered something and started chatting again. It was getting dark and Fia wondered if they could stay for the Karaoke night. She wanted to rock the house. And with MJ's mad guitar skills (which she had since L-chan made her for the sake of the fans) it was going to boom KAPOW!

The restaurant was swuiftly filled with what Fia believed to be regulars. Probably most of them being here to watch how people sucked at the Karaoke. That, or this was the best restaurant in town, as Takeshiro had told them.

It was finally time for the Karaoke. And Fia was first in line with a slightly displeased MJ being dragged by her.

After a few minor adjustments, and a permission by the owner of the restaurant to use one of the guitars, the two were ready on the stage.

Takeshiro actually watched them intently. They had said that were some type of performers.

"Aren't you going to join them?" he asked L-chan.

"I don't feel like it, and Fia is enough entertainment. But you'll see that soon enough." She gave him a knowing, evil smirk.

"Hi everybody!" she yelled in the mike at the quiet audience, a few perverted yells and whistles were heard here and there. "This is my first Karaoke night here, so I'm going to give my best, ok?"

Nobody answered. But the atmosphere was already entertaining. Just the way she was moving on stage made people smile. She did everything so cutely, for a lack of better words.

"Please give your round of applause to my best buddy in the world, Jessica-kun!"

MJ sighed tiredly and smiled half-heartedly at the public and waved. Several people laughed, and there were a few yells.

"Cammon, darlings! You don't want her to mess up her awesome skills, now do you?"

Then the applause started.

"That's it people! You own, you rule! You PWN!"

The applause got stronger, and the crowd started cheering at her.

"All right! That's what I was talking about!"

"This one is for all you awesome peeps and chicks out there! Hit it Jessie-kun!"

She started with a simple, slightly classically sounding tune which slowly became more complex, more deep and elaborate. People were silent while she was playing the guitar. It was one of their original songs that they sometimes played when they were in the Romano mansion with Hatorri and the rest. He was their second guitar.

It wasn't a rock song, but rather a slow love song. One that you could dance to.

"Moonlight, I was smiling at the moon tonight, baby. Where are you ?"

Fia started singing and indeed, she had an angelic voice.

"I wish I could see your face, smiling down at me like the white lady of the starry night sky.

Where are you?

I miss you babeh, don't you know that? I miss you, yet we've never ever met. I know you, but do you know me, baby… oh baby! Where are you?"

L-chan smiled. That was Fia's Cosplay theme song. She was singing about her favorite characters, namely Pein and Madara. It was a beautiful song and with MJ's mad guitar skills, it swiped away competition.

"Daylight, I see the dawn is coming and my heart is pounding in my chest, oh baby. Where are you?

And there you are, walking down the street. I wonder where you go, I cannot reach you, oh baby. How I wish I could be with you."

It was a strange new rhythm for the Japanese mindset around here. It was slightly similar to Spanish music, but slow and flirty in the skillful hands of MJ.

"I see you every day, every night and every morning you pass me by. I see you but do you know I love you. You are the world to me, oh baby."

The rhythm turned into a more heated, passionate one as Fia kept signing.

"Love is just a lie. A twirling emotion, a silent killer in the night and ruthless mistress in the day. Where are you, oh baby? I wish I could just meet you, even once, and then I will tell you how much I love you!

But will you see me? Can you even see yourself? Do you even know we are worlds apart? Do you even know we are meant to be yet not? Will you hear me out or will you leave me, blinded by your life?"

"Moonlight, I was smiling at the moon tonight, baby. Where are you?

Daylight, I see the dawn is coming and my heart is pounding in my chest, oh baby. Where are you?"

The public cheered. It was only natural for they truly had exceptional talent. Soon the song ended, the crowd wanted more. Fia bowed down and left to rest for a while, and MJ did several guitar solo's with a smirk on her face. She owned the crowd.

"You have an amazing voice, Fia-chan." Said Takeshiro, feeling quite entertained.

"You should see me dance!" she exclaimed rather loudly, adrenaline pumping hard in her veins.

She whistled loudly at MJ and she stopped playing, looking at Fia. When Fia was hyper, one would think she was intoxicated. And she was… it was a sort of a placebo effect, a Fia thing.

"Hit the Tango, Jessie-kun!" she yelled happily and then dragged L-chan to the middle of the restaurant.

L-chan laughed at her antics and decided to join in the fun. It was her that had thought her Tango anyways. And no body else knew it here so she let it slip. There were happy cheers, especially from the males. It was going to be an awesome Karaoke night, filled with the blissfully sexy sounds of a Spanish guitar solo. The three girls enjoyed themselves a lot. It was a sort of party for their coming in the Narutoverse and they let themselves loose for a while. After all, nobody was killed by a little music, right? And Sound ninja don't count because they sucked, at least that was what Fia thought.

It was amazing, in Takeshiro's eyes, how Fia, a single person that nobody here knew, was able to stir the entire restaurant and now they had some kind of an awesome party. After an hour MJ was still playing songs and now Fia was in enough party mood and she was occasionally giving a random squeal or scream here and there, obviously psyched up in dance mood. Heck, she had even pulled a few people and was now teaching them some kind of dance, a table cloth tied around her waste, forming some type of a dress, which, in reality, was supposed to resemble on of those awesome Spanish dresses the Spanish dancing girls wore.

Takeshiro was drinking his sake, watching the entertaining show before his eyes. He smirked under his nose. Even though they did not fit by any standards in this environment, they made the environment fit them. He knew a thing or two about Leader-sama's plans to train them as spies as he was going to be one of the people who were going to baby-sit them. They might do great as spies. And if they were any good in the ninja arts, they were going to be one of Pein's greatest weapons. Especially the black haired one. With a little adjustment she would fit in perfectly anywhere. If it wasn't for her crystal piercing blue eyes, she would've passed for a typical local onna, albeit a very beautiful one.

Of course, the commotion did not went unnoticed, as around that time two distinctly dark clad people were passing the restaurant.

Sasori and Deidara briefly stopped and looked at the restaurant. It was usual for Karaoke night to be loud but there was a rocking party in there and poor 15 1/2 year old Deidara really wanted to join them.

"Cant you go and report back for both of us, Sasori-Danna, un?" He asked pitifully.

Sasori also wanted to join the party, for he truly admired whoever was playing the guitar. That person possessed the skill of a true artist. But he also wanted to punish Deidara … well, for being his annoying self.

"No way in hell, brat. You made us late and you are coming with me. You are going to fix your own shitty mess." Sasori said in a highly irritated fashion. He had no idea how Deidara even had the nerve to ask him to finish the report alone. He would've let him, had they not been late. After all it was his giant clay bird that took them here. And Sasori had always secretly wanted to fly like a bird but that was irrelevant at the moment.

There was another cheerful howl coming from the restaurant. It was apparently the blond woman with the big breasts and the table cloth tied around her waste like a kilt, who was currently doing the Cancan on top of one of the tables. So that seemed to be the source of entertainment. She swiftly pulled up some black-haired girl up on the table with her. She was holding the guitar.

"All right! Everybody listen up!!!" she yelled, her voice booming across all the commotion.

"The next song I'm going to sing is one of my personal favourites! I dedicate it to all you awesome ninja dudes and chicks out there who make our daily lives more comfortable. You own Takeshiro-Sempai!" she yelled and pointed towards someone in the crowd but Sasori couldn't see who.

"I keep on falling….in…and out… of love… with'a you!" That's Alicia Keyes, if anyone was wondering.

Sasori was almost tempted to enter. Such a voice! And that natural beauty! She was so perfect… for a puppet! But he knew that if he kept her beauty eternal she would never sing again. Sasori sighed. He had never seen these girls before but despite his curiosity he headed towards HQ. He did not want Leader-sama to get even more angry. Hopefully the excuse about Deidara's …delicate state at the moment was going to be good enough for him.

"Deidara." He started threateningly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming Danna, un." He said bitterly, feeling very jealous of the people inside the restaurant. Those two girls were artists like him and Sasori! He could've asked at least one of them out. He hoped he was going to see them about tomorrow.

Finally, the two of them were back in the HQ. Pein was not happy.

"You are late by 10 hours. How is that so, Sasori? I thought you hated waiting or making others wait." Pein spoke in his usual calm, but steely cold voice. Sasori was gritting his teeth, not that anyone could see that, him being in Hiruko.

"The brat had stomach problems."

Pein raised an eyebrow at Deidara. There was a healthy, indignant blush on his face.

"It's your own fault, brat."

"How could I have known it was spoiled, Danna, un?"

"Enough bickering, you two." Pein cut them off. "I have decided not to punish you for being late due to the fact I hear you have done well on your mission."

"Why did you call us back a weak earlier, Leader-sama?" Sasori asked.

"I have a special assignment for you Sasori, that needs your attention immediately. Take this file, it contains the information that you might need."

"So you called us back for a new mission, Leader-Sama, un?"

"Yes. But it is within the HQ. All is written in the mission file."

"Are we dismissed, sir, un?"

"You may go, Deidara."

The Ex-Iwa ninja nodded his head in respect and left for his own residence. He needed something for his poor stomach.

"There is something you need to know Sasori."

"Yes, Leader-sama?"

"During your absence my men have found three strange girls in the outskirts of the forest outside of the village." Pein started.

"By strange I mean that there is something that isn't right about them. They are obviously not ninja and it is disturbing that they have chakra similar to that of a new born and rapidly developing."

Pein stood up from his chair behind his desk. He walked over to Sasori.

"They claim to come from far away. And they also claim not knowing how they got here. They speak of places I have never heard and I believe at least one of them is slightly schizophrenic. One of the items we found in their possession is a strange black box. We have been trying for more than a week to open it and I must say everything failed."

"And my job is to open this so called black box."

"Yes."

"If I may ask, Leader-Sama."

"You may."

"Why so interested in them?"

"When you see them, you will know." Those were the Leader's cryptic words. He seemed anxious in Sasori's eyes and the Puppet master knew that he was going to have his hands full for a few days.

"You are dismissed."

Sasori left the office to his own devices.


	10. Chapter 10

Sasuke was minding his own busyness, eating tomatoes and watching TV after a very hard training session with vengeance on his mind. In two months, he mused, he was going to be a ninja. And that meant he was one step closer to killing his brother.

Sasuke was your average 12 ½ year old soon-to-be teen. Raven black hair and dark onyx eyes, and pale skin- Uchiha trademark. It was important for the story to add that he still lived in the Uchiha grounds, as a reminder of what his brother did all those years ago. Sasuke frowned. He was going to end him, the same way he destroyed their family. There was nothing interesting on TV and if one had the chance, they would say he was more busy brooding that watching anything at all. But it was better than to train non-stop.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Sasuke was immediately on guard. Then he heard a splash. Something hit the surface of the Uchiha lake…hard. He needed to investigate.

As fast as he could he got out of his house and headed to the lake. He could see the water move as if something had hit it very hard… and then, in the dark (it was late at night) he saw someone wearing a white shirt floating on the surface, face down.

Something clicked in the young Uchiha's head when he saw that. He had to get the man out of the water. What if he had drowned? Then he had to explain the dead body in his lake… and that would endanger his ninja career and consequently his training.

Sasuke swiftly entered the cold lake and swam over to the body. It was the body of a very tall young man with black hair. He seemed unconscious. The young Uchiha pulled him out with much difficulty.

Finally, after what seemed forever, the man was pulled out of the lake. Sasuke took a few seconds to catch his breath and looked at the man. He wasn't breathing. Sasuke gulped. What if he had to do CPR? He paled at the thought. And just as he was about to do mouth-to-mouth breathing, the man coughed up some water and groaned.

It was really late at night and it was dark. Sasuke couldn't see the man's features. He turned him to the side to help him cough out all of the water. What was he doing swimming/drowning himself on Uchiha territory, anyways? He waited for the man to finish coughing water.

The older of the two finally stopped coughing and took a few shaky breaths before lying on his back, shivering. Sasuke could see he had short, black hair, and bangs similar to his.

"Ah…my head…" the man said in a language that Sasuke could not understand, which for the readers was English. The young man pushed himself slowly into a sitting position. "I think I might have a concussion..."

He covered his face with one hand and massaged the bridge of his nose. His eyes were closed and there was a slight frown marring his features. His world was spinning. He needed to get dry and warm and to lie down…

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked in a harsh voice, in Japanese.

The man looked at Sasuke… or at least tried. He could see three dancing copies of the boy and he felt extremely nauseous. He groaned and closed his eyes and lied down again. The last thing he needed was to vomit. He took a few seconds to compose himself. Where was he? What happened? His memories were slightly blurry but he was sure he was last with MJ, Fia, Tifa and L-chan. And he remembered some bright light.

"Whe…Where am I?" he asked weakly in Japanese, trying to keep the bile from rising.

At this point Sasuke was getting annoyed. Did this guy hit his head or something? Was he some drunk? Either way, he wanted him out of his property and fast. Or at least to find out his name.

"You are in the Uchiha Compound. What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked harshly. He was really annoyed. And that was not a good thing.

"Uchiha? Urgh…" the man groaned. He was experiencing a sharp pain to the left side of his rib cage. It was possible he had cracked ribs or a more severe injury.

"How did I get here?" he asked.

"You tell me, you trespassed."

"Hn." It was obvious the man was still trying to pull himself together. The name Uchiha ringed bells but the wheels weren't quite turning yet.

Sasuke sighed in aggravation. He stood up and pulled the man, helping him inside. The sharp pull was not a good idea as he growled out in pain.

"I'll get you inside." Sasuke said coldly.

Once inside the young man laid on the couch, on his right side. The pain in the left side was really trying to catch up on him. He needed to see a doctor. It was warm and comfortable inside and Sasuke came back with a blanket for him.

It was at that point at which they finally could look at each other. And Sasuke was slightly gaping at him… the older of the two looked uncannily like himself.

"Who are you?"

"Hatorri, you?" the man had said.

"Uchiha Sasuke." The boy said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

There was an awkward silence. Hatorri had one of his hands covering his face but he removed it and looked at the boy.

"No, seriously, who are you?"

"Uchiha Sasuke." He repeated rather agitatedly.

Hatorri stared at him with a dumbfound expression. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him.

"I must've hit my head hard…" Hatorri mumbled.

"Hn."

"Ok, if you really are Uchiha Sasuke, prove it."

Sasuke now unleashed the Uchiha Glare. Everybody knew who was Uchiha Sasuke! Hatorri laughed apprehensively.

"Uh… ok….you don't have to prove anything…can I use the phone to call my cousin…I think she might've pulled a prank on me."

"Are you sure you're not the one pranking me?" Sasuke asked in a semi-hostile manner.

This kid had some nasty attitude, Hatorri thought, and even a guy with his patience was having a hard time not to put him in his place, Uchiha Sasuke or not.

"Yes I am sure, I don't put my life in danger for the sake of stupidity, unlike some people." The man answered, making sure to emphasize on the word SOME.

Hatorri finally started to feel better after the whole ordeal, the blanket making him feel better. He really needed some dry set of clothes… he remembered having his backpack with him…

"Hey, is there a bag outside by any chance? I think I have a dry set of clothes in it…"

Sasuke eyed him suspiciously. Why would a guy, claiming innocence, would have a spare set of dry clothes?

"My cousin is a very paranoid person and insists carrying a water-sealed bag everywhere…" Hatorri answered the boy's unasked question.

"Right…."

Sasuke went outside and indeed, he found not one but three bags near the bank of the lake… he did not remember them being there…

He brought them inside and left them at Hatorri's feet. He seemed rather confused.

"I don't remember ever bringing this with me to AnimaCon…" he muttered eyeing a large green sport sack which he was sure it contained most of the clothes he had brought at Tifa's house. Then he looked at the other such large bag which now REALLY confused him." And I think I left this in EUROPE."

Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his chest. The hell was with this guy?

"Urm… can I go to the bathroom to change?" he asked politely.

"Second floor, third door to the left."

"Thanks, kiddo." He said, a friendly smile on his face.

The man stood up with a bit of difficulty and ruffled the boy's hair with one hand as he passed him by. Said boy glared but he didn't see it. Soon enough he got down, changed in a dry set of clothes- a white T-shit, Black baggy jeans, a pair of black and white and red sneakers and a black jacket.

"I am really sorry for the inconvenience, but can I use the phone as well? I promise I'll make it up for the inconvenience later."

"It's over there."

"Thanks, kiddo."

"Don't call me 'kiddo'."

"Uh, ok, whatever you say."

Hatorri dialed the number of Fia's cell phone. After waiting for 15 seconds the line was cut.

"Weird…"

He tried again and the call was answered.

"Hello, Fia? Is this some joke of yours because it really isn't funny and I think I may have cracked a rib or worse…Fia? Can you hear me? Are you there? Feefs? Fi? Hello?" The line was cut again.

Hatorri put the phone down, slightly peeved. Was his cousin ok? What the hell was going on?

He then dialed MJ's phone. The line was cut nearly immediately.

"Weird…ok… something is wrong…" he said mostly to himself than to Sasuke.

What if the police had them? With Fia's constant hacking… he shivered. Her dad would have his balls if he found out... He dialed L-chan's number. The same results.

"Something is seriously wrong…Kid, please tell me this is some kind of a Joke, because my uncle will have my balls if something Happened to Fia…" his voice sounded really panicky.

The whole time Sasuke was semi-glaring at him, the way only an Uchiha could glare at low-lives. The man's already pale face was now completely drained of all life. He was looking at a family photo that was on the wall, above the phone. His mouth was agape, onyx eyes wide open.

"T-t-that's…mom." He stuttered. It was the picture of Sasuke's family. It was Sasuke's/Hatorri's mom, Sasuke's dad and Uchiha Itachi, which really reminded him of MJ in her earlier years…after seven days of no sleep which she had every time before Cons… it was way better than make up, any day.

Sasuke was still looking at him silently. What the hell was going on?

"You really…are…Uchiha Sasuke?"

The boy nodded.

Hatorri feinted.

\-----------------------------------------------

Hatorri started to come through as he could hear quiet voices talking close by. He felt his rib cage really sore… especially on the left side and he made an attempt to move which woke him up completely as he felt sharp pain.

"Argh." He groaned and squinted his eyes in a painful grimace before opening them.

His vision was slightly blurry and it was a bit too bright but soon enough he could see an old geezer looking down at him with concern in his eyes. He had a short, trimmed beard and it was pretty obvious he was a man in his seventies…even eighties…

"Urgh…" Hatorri groaned again. It was now less bright but he could see it was day time… how long had it passed since he was last conscious… and he was lying on the couch again.

"Hello there." Said the old man and gave the young man a wrinkly smile.

"Uh, hello?" he greeted in a confused manner. The old dude looked familiar, Hatorri thought…

"Sasuke here says he found you swimming…er… drowning…. In his lake. Care to tell me what you were doing there?"

It wouldn't hurt answering, Hatorri mused.

"Uh… I just fell in, I guess… one second it was really bright and the next I was free falling into the lake… then all blacked out and the next thing I remember is him" he pointed at Sasuke who was brooding nearby on a chair and not really looking at him, "looking down at me…and then…hn…"

Hatorri kind of shrugged his shoulders.

"Sasuke said you were in some state of confusion and then you feinted out of shock." The old man helped. He seemed to try and push the young man gently into remembering.

"You said the woman on the picture was your mother." Sasuke added sternly… he seemed to have a very dark emotional feel to him. Hatorri suppressed a shiver.

"Yeah…uh… I can show you a picture of my mom."

Hatorri pulled his bag, which was next to him, and rummaged through it for a while. He pulled out a black leather wallet and opened it. From it he took out a folded picture, put in a plastic bag. He unfolded the picture and showed it to the old man.

It was a picture of him, MJ, Fia and His mom. It was from last year, when he and his mom went in Paris for Fia's seventeenth birthday. MJ was dressed in a very cute mini black dress and her hair had been styled in two low ponytails, one on each side, tied with blood red silk ties. She usually had two Itachi-bangs but now one of them was clipped back with a few beautifully decorated clips that shone brightly with small white and red gems. Her eyes were crystal blue and they really drew attention to her face as she wore some mascara to emphasize on them. Her gentle rosy red lips were shining with transparent slightly rosy glittery glanz. She had some rouge on her pale cheeks. She looked like a doll…and a lot like a certain Uchiha, the old man realized. Sasuke had also joined in staring at the picture.

Next to the girl, in the middle of the picture was Hatorri, also dressed in an official manner. He was smiling happily and his arms were bracing the Black-haired girl and his Blond cousin.

And the girl next to him was smiling in the exactly same way- brightly and foxily. Her azure blue sapphires for eyes were truly beautiful and her beauty matched the beauty of the black-haired girl. The difference was in her voluptuous bust. She was wearing a beautiful bright red summer dress. She had fitting high heel boots and an ample amount of her long lean legs were showing. She was of a tanned complexion, in contrast with everyone else on the picture. She was wearing a solar pendant on her neck, with a very thin golden chain. Golden ornamented bracelets were aplenty on both her arms. Her long blond hair was styled in large curls, fitting her attire perfectly. Her eyes were accentuated with dark golden brown make up and her thick lips with reddish glanz. Her golden mane could make all the gold on her jealous. She looked like a princess.

Above the three teens there was a woman, dressed in an equally official manner- Hatorri's/Sasuke's mom. She was a beautiful, tall woman with pale complexion. Her onyx eyes were shining brightly with happiness. She was standing above the three, possibly standing on a chair, the old man mused, and was embracing all three of them, one hand on MJ's shoulder and the other on Fia. She seemed so kind and protective of those she loved… just like Mikoto…

"That's my mom." Hatorri finally said. "She's really nice and always bakes lovely pies when we have guests." He smiled fondly at the picture, for a moment forgetting his current situation.

"She looks just like Mikoto…" the old man mumbled, surprise obvious in his voice and on his face.

"Who…"

"Uchiha Mikoto was my mother." The boy cut Hatorri.

"Who are you, boy?" the old man asked.

"My name is Johnson Hatorri." He then pointed at the picture." This is my mom, Takayama Sarah. Mom and dad are divorced. My dad, Johnson Jason and Fia's dad" he pointed at the blonde girl" are identical twins. MJ is Fia's best friend and I guess mine as well."

"This is quite peculiar…Do you know where you are?"

"Uh… Uchiha estate?"

"Does it ring any bells to you?"

"Uh…depends…"

Both the old man and Sasuke gave him weird looks.

"Uh… look, my cousin knows more about this manga stuff. Uhm… she says I look like an Uchiha so occasionally she and her club friends 'borrow' me." He said 'borrow' with all the intention to say 'kidnap'.

"Do you know where the Uchiha Estate is."

"Kono-something… I think… It was about forest or… leaves?" he looked at the two questioningly.

"You are in Konohagakure no Sato. The village hidden in the leaves, boy." Said the old man. "I am the Hokage of this village."

"Hokage? You mean that old Sarutobi guy who got killed during the Chuunin exams by some Oreo …or was it Roach?...guy who looks like Michael Jackson?"

Sasuke looked confused… The old man, now identified as Sarutobi Hiruzen, had the WTF expression on his face.

"Uh… woops?" Oh boy.


	11. Chapter 11

The Hokage was a very understanding and gentle person, Hatorri had realized. He was surprised he hadn't called his What's-it-called bad ass ninja to take him to the interrogation team or something. If anything, he was happy he was still alive.

"So, now that we are safe and secure in my office, please tell us anything you know about Konoha." Sarutobi started.

He had brought him and the young Uchiha in here in case someone was spying on them. When you lived in a ninja world, there was no such thing as being too cautious. And the boy seemed too pale to be normal and still needed medical attention. But for now he needed the information this young man had for him.

"Urgh… it's a long story… Hokage-sama, was it? And I don't know that much really… If you find a blond girl with blue eyes, really cute and talkative, that's my cousin mind you, she will tell you everything there is to know including things you would have never wanted to know in the first place about the Ninja world." The boy seemed unnerved by his situation and the Hokage felt sympathy for him. Sasuke was almost the same way. In fact, the Hokage was worried about him, this was the first time he had seen the boy show emotion in such a way after the Uchiha Massacre.

"You can start where you think it's the beginning then. I'm not pushing you or anything. Tell me what you know, I am here to help you and hopefully help my village in the process."

"Well. You said this is Konoha, right? Uhm… and there are these Chunin exams… and then this guy, Oreo…"

"Do you mean …Orochimaru?" The Hokage asked, fearing the answer.

"Yeah! That's the name. Pale white skin, purple make up on the eyes, yellow snake eyes… long black hair… purple gay butt-bow, right?"

"Do continue." Sarutobi had a disturbed mental image of a certain snake bastard with a purple bow.

"Uhm, well, in the manga Team 7 enters the Chunin exams and Orochimaru tricks the Sand into attacking Konoha… I think Oreo…uh… Orochimaru kills the Kazekage, Gaara's dad, and disguises himself as the Kazekage…" Hatorri furrowed his brows and tried hard to remember more. Right now he didn't want to think what was going on. He needed to take this…situation…wherever he was… as easily as possible.

The young man looked at Sasuke next to him. The cursed seal on his shoulder suddenly sent a small shot of pain through him and he grimaced as he rubbed it to subdue it. Hatorri's face lit up.

"Orochimaru wants Sasuke's body! For the Sharingan! That was the Uchiha bloodline, right?" he exclaimed suddenly, making the Hokage nearly jump in his seat.

The old man lit his pipe. Hiruzen was looking at the young man before him. Who was he? Where did he come from? Did he know the future? He said something about manga. And his uncanny resemblance to the last Uchiha…

"OK, that's enough for now… You can tell me about yourself if you want. Where do you come from. Any idea how you came here. Those sort of things." The Hokage was talking seriously, but in a calm, fatherly fashion, slowly and clearly, so that he did not feel threatened.

"Well, uhm. I think this is kind of crazy…you see… where I come from- there is this manga, comic book story, called Naruto."

At the mention of the name both Sasuke and the Hokage's eyes widened.

"Please continue, Hatorri-kun."

"It's very popular. In fact, my cousin is the leader, unofficial though, of the Akatsuki Fan Club- the biggest Fan Club of the manga. All of them are these crazy chicks and dudes, you have to see it to believe it. They all have these weird Cosplays…urgh…anyways, the Manga Naruto is about a boy named Uzumaki Naruto, I think he was in you class, Sasuke? The dobe, right?"

How did he know about the dobe!?

"What about Naruto?" the Hokage needed to know. At first he thought the young man mental. But his knowledge was accurate. He was by far no ninja then how did he know about Naruto. He needed to try this boy, to make sure he was no spy.

"He is a Jinchuuriki? And this evil organization, Akatsuki, is after him."

"But you said your cousin was the Leader of the Akatsuki Fan Club."

"She named the club after the villains quote unquote "because they have cool cloaks and are bad ass…" oh and one more "and because the dark side has cookies". But its generally a Naruto Fan Club." He even mimicked her high pitched voice.

"Why is this…manga… named after Uzumaki Naruto?"

"He is the main protagonist. Everybody knows that. And the manga is about Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi, Sasuke here, and Haruno Sakura… a pink haired monster that becomes super strong later on under the tutelage of the Fifth Hokage… I think her name was Tsunade?"

"So Tsunade returns to Konoha after my supposed demise…hmm" the Hokage mumbled. He needed to know more.

"And when is this attack going to be?"

"I remember something about Team 7, Kakashi's team, returning from a mission with some drunken old bridge builder or something and then Kakashi says he'll take them to the Chunin exams…oh and Sasuke!"

The boy looked up at Hatorri expectantly.

"You activate the Sharingan during that mission, trying to save Naruto! Oh and you die, trying to save Naruto. But it was a plot bunny or whatever Fia called it and I think you came back to life after that, or something…"

Sasuke was just looking sternly at him. He was going to die? Then come back to life? This guy was nuts. And his eyes said as much.

"I'm not crazy! You were fighting this Haku chick/dude that had this cool icy bloodline and he/she used needles or something."

"Uhm, I'm not making sense, am I?"

The Hokage sighed. It was going to be a looong day. At least there was not going to be any paperwork on his side. Funny how accurate the kid was about Kakashi being teacher to team 7. Or at least those were his plans.

"You DO survive since you kick bad ass during the Chunin exams and I watched that one on the TV."

"You said it was manga."

"They made Anime version since it was such a success."

The Hokage sighed again and took a puff from his pipe.

"You have this crystal ball thingy which you use to spy people with. It's really cool. Oh, and you have a grandson, Konohamaru and a son, Asuma. He is a chain smoker and he and Kurenai will have a baby after a few years…uhm…what else to make you believe me…" the boy was trying hard, (and was also scratching the back of his head, something of a family trait).

And was succeeding. Nobody, and he meant it, nobody knew of his crystal ball.

"Oh yeah, team Asuma will be the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. They're team 10. And team 8 are Kurenai's team- Hyuuga Hinata, she's very shy and she likes Naruto but he doesn't know it…dog buy Kiba, Inu-something, and bug boy- Aburame Shino who has Matrix Style glasses…but I don't think you know what the matrix is…" his voice dropped down once again.

"Oh, and team 9 is from the year before, Team Gai. Maito Gai is really creepy and he has this mini-me a.k.a. Rock Lee. And the other two Genin are Hyuuga Neji, Hinata's cousin, and Ten-ten."

Then Hatorri smiled a bit, in a way which reminded the old man a lot of Naruto's own foxy grin.

"I remember the teams because Neji's Dad and Hinata's dad are also identical twins. And because Fia made me watch the original Anime series" he said proudly. "Wasn't Neji's old man killed because of some Iwa incident? Them kidnapping lil' Hinata?"

"Sasuke" the Hokage said, feeling it was time to dismiss the boy, as Hatorri, he feared, was going to start spewing village secrets." Please go back to the compound. If there is anything you need to know I'll send a ninja for you."

Sasuke took this as his cue to leave. Today he was excused from the academy so he could come with the Hokage. He felt very uneasy and his heart was heavy- what if this man was some long lost Uchiha? The same question bothered the Hokage and soon enough both would know.

"Now that Sasuke is gone, do you wish to tell me anything else?" The old man now asked very gravely, but still politely.

"I come from another dimension where this entire place is a Manga. I didn't want to spew it in front of Sasuke…and uhm… there is this one more thing…I have this cursed seal on my shoulder and it really itches and sends pangs of pain…I think it might've gotten real." The boy cringed.

The Hokage paled. Nothing seemed to make sense to him at the moment. Especially the 'gotten real' part. The hell!?

"Back in my dimension there is this thing called Cosplay. It means dressing up as a fictional character and acting like them. And Akatsuki Fan Club, AFC for short, consists of the best Naruto Cosplayers. I'm not part of it but my cousin makes me Cosplay Sasuke. And since he went to this Oreo…Orochimaru I mean… in order to get more power to kill Itachi, his brother, he got this cursed seal thingy? It was a temporary tattoo I got but now it hurts… uhm… there is one more thing."

The Hokage looked at him expectantly.

"The Akatsuki hunt down Jinchuuriki. We really need to find my friends… if they're here… they know everything about this place…and I do mean everything. They even know who the Jinchuuriki are and where they are...their weaknesses, strengths…I really mean everything. And they know all the jutsu of the strongest leaf ninja. We have to find them before the bad guys."

Hatorri seemed really worried about it. The Hokage was stressed by all of this.

"Besides, Fia's dad will cut my balls off if something happened to his only offspring." Hatorri laughed nervously. " And there is one thing that really worries me but I think we have to check if I have an Uchiha gene or not…"

"What do you mean?"

"If I have the cursed seal because Sasuke would have it, that means I have the Uchiha Gene because Sasuke has it. And that makes me Uchiha…sort of, right?"

That actually made sense… but not before making some tests.


	12. Chapter 12

For the past 24 hours several very important things happened to Hatorri. First, he was somehow transported to the Narutoverse. Second, he was sure the rest of his Con team was here somehow as well. Third, the Hokage was kind enough to listen and understand his story, and now he was going to live with this Sasuke kid, which he had vowed to help become a better person.

It was his third day here. That morning he woke up with the intention of going to the Hokage to find out whether he had the "Uchiha" gene or not. Yesterday he had been through some blood tests while Sasuke was at the Academy.

Speaking of the last Uchiha, Sasuke was a very quiet kid, and he eerily reminded him of MJ when he first met her. In fact, it was understandable – MJ's older brother was killed when she was eight by a stray bullet during a trip to the mall. It was now that he actually realized how similar MJ and Sasuke were.

Hatorri sighed and rubbed his cursed mark. The Hokage had told him that currently he would see if the cursed seal needed the sealing. It was, after all, a tedious and painful procedure which Hatorri would be far from fond of. That and he had the distinct feeling Hatorri was not the hungry for power type. It was in his eyes. Fia had once even told him that he had this 'knightly' shine in his eyes and at the thought Hatorri chuckled.

That was the moment in which Hatorri noticed the delicious aroma coming from downstairs. Who knew Sasuke was a good cook? Hatorri had always thought Sasuke was a heartless bastard, the way Fia spoke of him, but he seemed ok once you got used to his 'hn' attitude towards everything. And Fia was biased anyways.

Still, Sasuke was being exceptionally nice to him for one sole reason. Yesterday night Hatorri had told him everything he knew about Itachi. And he knew the more important stuff. For his surprise, Sasuke looked relieved. Why? Because he still loved his Aniki, and deep down inside he never really had the heart to kill him. Now he had a new plan in his head, that avenger boy. He wanted to help his brother by becoming stronger. And he wanted to kill this Madara.

The young Uchiha still had a long way to go when it came to his mindset but Hatorri was patient. He would get the avenging ideas out of his head. At least most of them.

"What are you doing, kiddo?"

"Hn." Sasuke hated his new nickname. And he even preferred Sasuke-kun to being called 'kiddo'. Seriously, couldn't he take a hint!?

"Smells nice…Aren't you late for the Academy?"

"Its Saturday, we don't have Academy at weekends."

"Oh…"

Hatorri did the math. If it was Saturday today, that meant there was some kind of temporal dislocation. It was Monday as far as he remembered back at home and he was pretty sure that there were only a few seconds of bright light and then BAM! He was in the Uchiha lake. But he was going to worry about it later, there was nothing he could do, except maybe train in order to find his Cousin and the rest of the damsels in his Con Team.

"Hey, kiddo?"

"Stop calling me that."

"Wanna train? I wanna see if you are as good as they come."

Sasuke gave Hatorri a look. Hatorri was grinning like a Cheshire Cat… or rather a foxy grin. Was he for real? He didn't seem much, even though he seemed to have a trained, muscular physique.

"Hn."

"Great! We'll go outside after breakfast!"

Another thing that really unnerved Sasuke was how well he could understand him. Only a few people had the ability to know whether his 'hn' was yes or a no.

Breakfast was silent in any case, both digging in with precisely the same movements. They looked at each other and Hatorri grinned happily. Sasuke had noticed how cheerful, but calm and collected Hatorri was. And he had also noticed how nice it was to have someone around. Someone who understood him like Hatorri. It was almost like…well… dare he say it? Family.

"Do you guys eat this Asian stuff all the time?" Hatorri pointed casually at the food Sasuke had made with his chopsticks.

Sasuke frowned. Did he not like his cooking? He was a natural when it came to household stuff. Cooking? Yum. Cleaning. He was awesome at it, too. You name it and he could do it.

"It's nice, really. But don't you get bored of it?"

Sasuke gave him a look again. He really must have come from far away.

"I'm used to international cooking. Don't you eat lasagna? Or steak? We should eat different stuff every day you know? Like, lets have Italian day, French day…it will really help your body become stronger. And we need you to eat lots of carrots. Good for the eyes. For vitamin A and all that jazz."

"…what's lasagna?"

"You'll love it! It's like the next best thing after real Italian Pasta!" Hatorri said enthusiastically, his eyes glowing lovingly.

He was, after all, a Johnson. And Johnsons were slightly insane, smart, strong, and had iron wills. Good spirits came with the up-bringing. And the Johnsons had traditions.

Sasuke found out that Lasagna had tomatoes. At least that was what Hatorri had told him. And tonight, Hatorri was going to cook.

"Wanna go outside for a walk before the training? The food needs to 'settle in' if you catch my meaning. Unless you like barfing…"

"Hn."

"Meet you outside then!"

Hatorri was excited. He didn't really have explored Konoha yet and he wanted to get a good view of the Hokage monument. The Uchiha complex was rather dull and silent because it had only two residents. But it was huge! He was sure that when they found Fia and the rest Sasuke wouldn't mind having them with them. And Fia WAS the best cook ever. And MJ was good with cleaning. He didn't know about Rose, she always seemed to just sit around and give orders.

Both were now properly dressed to go out. Hatorri was with his trademark black jacket and he also had a black baseball hat on his head, so that they didn't look THAT similar.

They just started walking randomly about Konoha, Sasuke commenting from time to time on a restaurant or a location of importance. He wasn't talkative though.

There were also lots of whispers and mumbles about them and it was impossible not to notice how people were staring at them. Sasuke was surprised Hatorri wasn't reacting.

"I'm used to it, kiddo. I'm used to it." He had said as a matter of factly, not really disturbed by the attention.

"Hn."

After a few more minutes Hatorri stopped and looked at the Hokage Monument. Screw Mount Rushmore! Hokage monument FTW! And the heads were so life-like!

"Can we go on top of the Hokage Monument?"

"Hn."

"Great!"

The view from the top of the Hokage Monument was amazing. The Hokage tower was close by and he could see an endless sea of trees, huge trees, mind you, around the village. He remembered Fia saying that it was the first Hokage who had built the village with his bare hands… or rather his Moku-something.

"Wanna tell you a secret?" Hatorri whispered comparatively.

Sasuke raised an eye brow at him.

"The Fourth Hokage is Naruto's dad. But don't tell anyone."

Sasuke was gaping at him. He was sure Hatorri wasn't lying because he had heard plenty of things coming out of his mouth. How could the Fourth Hokage PRODUCE something as STUPID as Naruto.

"The…dobe? No way. No. He is epitome of all that is stupid, clumsy… and stupid."

"He is. I swear."

"Hn."

"Have you seen a picture of the fourth? Naruto is his spitting image! Minus the whiskers, of course. But that's another thing that I'll leave when we are not out in the open. I've already said so much to get my head on a stick." He grinned foxily.

"You are ridiculous. How can you be so calm when you are practically spewing village secrets?" Sasuke asked incredulously.

"It's the laid-back attitude that keeps me from trouble. And I've never been the worry-wart type. You know, I am planning on telling you everything I know and make sure you know everything as much as possible about this place because you're like the second most important character and I know that my cousin will kill me but at least I won't go down without a cause….Hey! That made perfect sense! Ahem… Anyway, my motto is Hakuna Mattata. Which means no worries! And when I'm done you'll be singing it along with me, my faithful side kick!"

He put his had on Sasuke's shoulder and sighed, looking at the village scenery before him. That moment would have been perfect if it wasn't for Sasuke-grumpy.

"You're being ridiculous." He shoved off Hatorri's hand.

"But you love it. I can see it in you eyes, I can see the mental smirk." The older boy said in a rather sing song voice.

"I can't believe that you are 19, you know that?" Sasuke said semi-annoyedly, since Hatorri had been spot on.

The older boy grinned. Messing with Sasuke was too fun. Was this what it feels like to have a younger sibling? A younger brother?

"Believe it!" Insert trademark foxy grin and good guy pose.

Sasuke shook his head. He was trying really hard to be funny, wasn't he?

"OK, lets get back and train, so you can kick my ass."

"Fine." Sasuke finally smirked.


	13. Chapter 13

Peter was what one could consider a man of honor. He was also incredibly intimidating when pissed. His unnaturally aqua green eyes were eyeing his 'suspect' casually. Light Yagami, also known as Leo, short of his real name, was tied up with thick ropes to a chair. He was acting pretty cool, almost smug looking.

The Sephiroth-man hated his attitude. And he was freaked out with worry. They had to find their friends. And so many missing at the same time. It had taken him about a week to find out that not only MJ, L-chan, Fia, Hatorri and Tifa (Hidan) were missing. Charlie had suddenly disappeared during lunch break from her school, Helen, Hannah and Simon Woodsworth had disappeared during an avalanche in the French Alps but he was sure it was connected with the others. Said siblings were the infamous Hyuuga trio. The tall silver-haired sex god flicked a bang away from his eyes. Light was either pretending not to know anything, or he was pretending being calm. He needed to find his friends. And all of them were of the Inner Circle of the AFC. The cops had been at his house the other day, asking questions. And they also got his wife worried, on top of that, which made him especially angry. He and an Aerith Cosplayer had married 6 months prior this current day and she was three months pregnant with their first child. If anything happened to her because of them he would definitely pull a Sephiroth on their asses.

And right now he was considering his chances if he asked Light for his help. From what Fia had told him, Light was just as smart as she was, and she was the frikkin' genius of the 21st century. He ought to know what was going on.

"Light, 9 members of the AFC's Inner Circle are missing. And I'm very serious about this. And I am certain that it isn't a CosWar. It isn't possible for them to disappear from the face of the Earth. Not like that." He snapped his fingers. Peter was trying to be calm and collected but the slight strain in his voice and the worried shimmer of his eyes betrayed his true emotions.

"What are you suggesting?" Light calmly got to the point.

"Call off the feud and unite in order to find them before the police does." Peter said seriously.

"Hm…" Light slightly furrowed his brows. "I told her hacking bank accounts was a bad idea but I doubt she ever listened to what I said. She rarely pays heed but she usually is fine in the end. She might've pissed off some high-ups pretty badly. They might've kidnapped her… as to how she disappeared in a flash of light I can only guess she isn't the only one with a supercomputer like hers about… People like Fia can cause World Wars in a blink of an eye."

Peter was surprised that Light was so quick to help when he asked him.

"Don't look dumb. We were, after all, childhood friends and rivals, and still are. And untie me, you're ruining my Cos."

"Still a bastard."

"When it's you, I see why not. I don't need to be nice to people like you."

"Hn."

There were a few seconds of lighting striking from their eyes as they glared at each other. Peter finally smirked and untied Light.

"I will make a few calls if you don't mind. People need to know of our situation."

Peter handed Light's mobile phone back.

It was going to be a long and tedious day. At least his lovely wife had cooked chicken, his favorite. Kate was a wondrous housewife and the perfect Aerith Cosplayer. But he didn't marry her for that. He married her because he loved her. Cheesy, isn't it?

"Come, wife made dinner."

Light nodded. Usually he would smirk deviously but he was worried about Fia, mainly. Fia and Leo had something special and Peter always wondered if they had ever dated each other. They were very, intimately, close with each other. But Peter knew that Light wanted to date with L-chan so he dismissed that idea, the one about them dating. But they must have something about each other, he was sure, even if they never noticed it.

Dinner was mostly quiet, except for Light's occasional phone calls. He was contacting the Inner Circles of the respective fan clubs and most weren't happy to hear about the "Feud is Ovah!" situation. Still, it was that or get their asses fried, as the AFC was not the only club leeching money via hacking. And if the AFC conspiracy went live, then all of them were sure to be checked as well. Needless to say, people were going to do jail time. So the newly created "Cosplayers Unite!" was a result from the need to save everybody's asses, not just rescue the kidnapped AFC members.

Pretty much everybody was sick with worry and paranoia these days. Peter, being the leader of ShinRa, the best Final Fantasy Fan Club, was probably never going to see the light of day if the CONspiracy went live.

Why did you have to disappear, Fiffie? He mentally whined at his little sister figure.

"I have an update on our situation."

Peter looked up at Light.

"It appears that two more people have disappeared by the same means."

Peter's heart stopped beating for a few seconds.

"And Fia hasn't pissed some high-ups, at least I think she hasn't… it's just a hunch. Apparently, the people missing are some guy named Misoshi Romero, from Japan. He doesn't seem to have any connections to any fan club or Fandom in general, according to Lilly-Anne."

Lilly-Anne Philips was the leader of the Shinigami. She was a Matsumoto Rangiku Cosplayer. She kind of looked like Fia, both physically and psychologically. And both were ridiculed about it.

"And?"

"The other missing is one of mine." He stated, almost professionally.

"And that is?"

"Let me finish and I will tell you."

Peter glared at him and was about to retort.

"Peter." Kate gave him a warning look, which told him not to pick a fight and to listen to the young man.

"Pardon me, Kate." He smiled guiltily and she nodded curtly.

"As I was saying, this Misoshi person does not fit the set mold of kidnapping pattern. I need to look up all the info before I make a conclusion."

"I see."

"In the mean time we need to speak to the respective families, even bribe them into silence, which should be easy."

"And about that other person missing?"

"Her name is Sylvia Bri." Light said curtly. He never liked to give out info about his own club.

"I know her!" Kate exclaimed excitedly. "She was that nice, charming pale girl with the Elizabeth Taylor eyes!"

"Who?"

"The SnJ L-Cosplayer, Pete."

"How come you know her and I don't?" the Sephiroth Cosplayer looked at his wife.

"She used to be in my cooking class but we didn't talk much. She is a bit odd but nice. Keeps distance from people." She explained.

"Oh." There wasn't much to say about this.

Light's phone rang again. Once he had turned it on it had been ringing almost non- stop. He had been dragged by Peter and he had been his hostage for a few days. Not in the criminal sense but he was still tied up to that very comfortable massage chair in the basement. He was taken to the bathroom when needed and he was fed with the best warm sandwich pockets he had ever tasted, courtesy of Kate, so he was practically on vacation there. Enough ranting.

"Light here, what's the… oh, hi Mother." He said timidly, after the first part, which was said in a cool voice.

Peter raised an eyebrow when he heard the muffled yells of Leo's mother. She was yelling at him for explainable reasons. Light was slightly cringing at her tone, not really used to being yelled at by other people that his obnoxious rival, Fia. Her lines were along the way of 'Where have you been?', 'I was so worried, young man!', 'Did you hear Fiona was kidnapped?', 'I thought the two of you had eloped and run off without telling me!' At the last part she had burst into tears.

Light had a freaky look on his face and he was red from head to toes.

"Mom, I have not eloped and I don't know where Fia is but I won't come back home until I find her. I'm crashing at some friend's house at the moment and we're planning on getting the gang together to find the missing people. Please don't tell the police about it. Just tell them I am at a friend's house and that I am fine."

More muffled words could be heard from the phone.

"Yes, mother, I am aware of that… No, she is only a friend… Yes… No… Of course… Yes, mother… Yes, I have enough underwear… No…I am a man of my word and a man of honor…Of course… NO, don't give the phone to da-… Hi, Father."

You couldn't NOT be sympathetic to the boy. His father was a bit tactless and senseless when it came to his son.

"I already told Mother that I have not eloped with Fia. No, I do not plan on marrying her. Yes, that's the one. It's not because of the rack, dad… or her family."

After 10 more minutes of ridiculous parent-child talk, Light finally let the mobile phone down on the table. He let out a heavy side. He then looked up at the Sephiroth Cosplayer, surprised he was not being ridiculed by him.

"I totally understand you man." Peter said emotionally.

"Probably half of our club members are like that, us included. Though Pete-kun and I here did elope." Kate giggled heartily.

Light nodded in gratitude. This was rather humiliating. At least they understood his pain.

"So we are doing our own research?"

"Of course. The Don is already working on setting up a pattern for the kidnappings." Light continued, looking at an SMS that he just received. At the moment he was subconsciously contemplating the pros and cons of getting a personal assistant to deal with all these calls and messages. Maybe he needed one. He was getting a bit busy with all this kidnappings going on.

"So, what now?"

"Now we wait for the hurricane to pass."

"Stay low and play dumb?"

Light nodded at Peter. It was a serious matter and they knew it. You see, people like them, like Fia, MJ and the others… they were often called crazy, psychotic, cultists even. And there were things, obviously, that they did and that were considered crimes against society, namely stealing money via hacking and other such things that they did. They should be considered as a threat to mankind. But they were not bad guys. In fact, they even tried to help out with charities and such. It was something they were compelled to do in order to promote their fandom, and, of course, out of kindness.

But most people did not understand their double way of life. And most people would send them to a psycho clinic or behind bars. Keeping the Other Side of Cosplay from being discovered by government and international institutions was a priority now. And they also needed to find their friends.

"We need headquarters." Light suddenly stated after making another lengthy phone call.

"We can use one of the Romano Manors…"

"Out of the question. Lilly-Anne just told me she phoned Mr. Romano and he told her the cops are watching over every single estate they have. She was subtle enough. Also, their phones are bugged."

Peter nodded.

"What can we use then?"

"Something they would not expect us to. Something that even CIA won't think of…" Light rubbed his chin deep in thought. He let out an exasperated sigh. "Why did they have to pluck Fia too? She always has some hideout somewhere or at least a good idea."

Peter raised his eyebrows. Light was not one to give in to pressure. But his worry over his friends and all those who were kidnapped were more then enough to make even people like him crack a bit.

"You're smart, Leo." Kate gave him a supportive smile. "And I am sure we are plenty of Cosplayers and we can think of something. Currently, all the leaders are in America…"

Something clicked and turned in Light's head. His eyes widened with realization.

"I know the perfect spot."

The tension in the air was so thick that it could be cut with a knife. However, despite how perfect this moment was for a cliff hanger, this chapter was yet to be finished.

"Care to elaborate?"

"There is one person that is a great anime fan and that is well respected and known on DeviantArt. In fact, you know her too. She created like the greatest fandom based on fandom."

"You don't mean…her?"

"Yes, Narsilion- the Revered."

And yet again, there was silence. It was amazing really, when one thought about it. Narsilion, or Sam Taylor, as she was also known, was a big Naruto fan. And she happened to create what people referred to the Second Best Thing in Naruto. SBTN, also known under the codename Sebastian. Yes, that's right – Naruto Post Legends. And Sebastian was an Elite Cosplay exclusive codename. That made spies jealous.

First, it had started with a few casual fanfics. Then a few casual Cosplays. And then it was like a huge atomic bomb had hit the Fandom Market. Suddenly one could see Mubis and Zabukis everywhere. Team 24 galore. They were everywhere. In fact, a part of the Inner Circle was represented by a few Akatsuki II Cosplayers. Had Narsilion known that something like this would happen, she would've put up a higher price on her fan Manga. Still, she was regarded as high as Kishimoto himself, mainly because her characters were well thought over.

Five minutes after the revelation of what they must do, Lilly-Anne received an SMS saying "Meet me at Sebastian's."

Lilly-Anne was a natural beauty with cunning blue eyes and voluptuous body. She was a calm and calculating woman and, as stated earlier, she resembled Fia both physically and mentally. The difference was that instead of being an Evil Genius on the inside, she was an Evil Genius, but Gandhi style, on the outside. By evil, I meant that people that smart were in no way virtuous. She just had a tamed inner fangirl, which was Fia's outside. Light believed that Fia would become one day just like Lilly. And he was probably right. If only it would happen sooner. Not even an almost fatal meeting with a 12 meter saltwater croc could mellow out her crazy fangirl ways. Not much anyways. She was more careful now.

When she received the SMS she seemed confused. Why would anybody gather at Narsillion's house? It was obvious why they were using this special codename- they were probably bugged. She sighed. So many people went missing that it was obvious why nearly all the higher-ups of all the clubs were probably bugged in hopes of finding out a bit more. It was a waste of time really. People who didn't know anything about Cos obviously knew nothing about the Intergalactic Cosplay Code. And one of the main rules was never fight for real and never do anything incriminating, well...just don't get caught. In real life most of them knew each other and had civilized conversations. Cons were different. During Cons they were almost like football hooligans. Almost being key word. It was all for fun anyways. It was their way of keeping up the quality of the Cos, anyways.

Still, as she was sitting in her comfortable chair in her hotel room, she couldn't help but wonder. Why would somebody want to kidnap these specific set of people? L-chan was rich and was a lawyer. Her father had lots of connections. Fia was a crazy hacker. It was possible someone wanted payback. MJ was the daughter of two of the best doctors in Britain. The Woodsworth siblings are of noble family, also rich. Tifanny Mitchels was a Corporal in the French Foreign Legion. Her sharpshooting skills were beyond legendary. Hatorri was Fia's cousin and Fia's family was generally rich.

And that's the point at which things stopped adding up. All these people were perfect for getting large amounts of money.

Lilly again looked at her lap top. She was looking at some info one of her hacking friends had sent her. She was looking at the image of a young man with mid-length, black hair that was slicked back. His eyes were vivid green. He was of pale Asian complexion. His physique was pleasing to the eye and he was also nice and tall. He also had a handsome face.

20 years of age, 185 cm… she read on. Cute guy, she thought, date-able. A bitter smile appeared on her face. This man was an athlete. He had nothing to do with any of the fandoms and had, on top of that, disappeared in the same fashion as the rest who were missing.

And elegant finger stroke gently against her lower lip. She always did that when she was deep in thought. He was one piece of the puzzle that sure as hell did not in any way add up. The rest had some kind of connection. He had none.

She grunted. A headache was coming, she could just feel it. She massaged her temples for a while. It had been a week since the last kidnap. It was time to do a rerun.

It all started two weeks ago when, right before her very own eyes, there was a sudden flash of yellowish, very bright mind you, light and then there was a power out. And the AFC members had simply poofed away from existence. She still remembered every detail. It was quite possible for the several minutes of confusion and lack of light, and in almost complete darkness for someone to have managed, somehow, to kidnap them. It was weird, though. Out of all of them Fia was the only one with questionable fitness, and she was a little demon spawn, a spitfire with more power backing up her fists that a blond bimbo should have. Then again she ate like a pig, and took 5 pounds of sugar, the least, every day. That would explain her power… or so went the rumors. Light never really talked about her eating habits when he had her cunning to consider. To get to the point, even lazy lil' Feefs could put up a crazy fight. HOW the hell were they kidnapped? Were they stunned or drugged in some way? HOW?

And approximately, if not even exactly at that same time of day, Charlotte Georgiana, some SnJ Gaara Cosplayer she had seen once or twice, had disappeared during Lunch Break in school. There seemed to be reports of a bright flash of light, as well.

And what's up with the freaking flash of light? Did they get kidnapped by aliens or something? At this point Lilly considered even aliens. She hadn't slept for days. A week later, out of the blue, this guy Misoshi Romero, Sylvia Bri of the Death Librarians and the Woodsworth (Hyuuga) siblings disappeared.

Misoshi had disappeared in a flash of light during some test sprints or something. Sylvia disappeared while taking out the trash, also via flash of light, and the Woodsworth sibling disappeared supposedly in an avalanche incident. But astronomically, they had disappeared at exactly the same time as the other two, despite Sylvia being in the State of Montana, U.S.A., the Woodsworths being in the French Alps on Vacation, and Misoshi – Tokyo, Japan.

And it was the same pattern as the first 'wave' of supposed kidnapping. They really needed to know more but at this point talking to the relatives with all the police about was dangerous.

The Fan Club situation was like this: The government and other international organizations were onto the disappearings. If they even got a whiff of how they got their money, which would take a helluva lot of time, all of the higher up members were screwed. So, the sooner they find the missing members, the better. And if they did it before the police – bonus cookies for Christmas!

The Rangiku look-alike rested her head on the back of the chair, staring lazily at the boring creamy white sealing. She shook her head lightly and looked back at the task at hand- Misoshi Romero. WHY was he kidnapped when he is not part of any fandom? And why did they disappear at exactly the same time.

There were several video tapes and .avi's with the last moments of the said people. In fact, after the bright flash of light, which was nearly blinding, the videos got screwed meaning the followed recording was static.

And there were plenty of witnesses. It was almost the perfect crime. Almost. There were still plenty of clues they could work on.

Her cell phone buzzed again. She jumped a bit in a start as it was on her lap.

"Rangi… I mean, Lilly-Anne speaking."

"Check your mail box." Said a mechanical voice. It was The Don, her personal Hacker. She had absolutely no idea who he was. At first he was stalking her, ever since her first appearance on a convention three years ago. She had been a hardcore fan of Bleach but until now her hair had been too short to pose as Rangiku, her favorite character. Her strawberry blonde hair was the perfect length and at her 20th birthday, she had strutted her stuff on that particular Con.

At first, she was creeped out. Then he started sending her mails, calling her on the phone, with that Microsoft Sam robotic voice. At that point she was completely freaked out. And then, one night a year and a half ago, while she was coming back from a little 24/7 mall close to her house, she was attacked and nearly raped. And she had been knocked out. When she woke up, she found herself covered in a blanket in the police station. She feared the worst but then the policewoman had told her some man brought her in, after saving her from a rapist which was currently behind bars. And when she had gotten home, she had found a bouquet of red roses going with a card. It was then that she found out something about him. He called himself The Don, or as she referred to him- Dannie.

Lilly-Anne opened her mailbox. She had several e-mails with attached files. When she opened the first, she nearly dropped her lap top in surprise.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

An Asian woman of pale, Asian, complexion was sitting on the side of a loveseat. In one hand she was holding a glass filled with whiskey, with the other hand, she was wiping away tears that seemed not to dry.

The tall woman had beautiful onyx eyes with thick black eye lashes. She had small mouth, thin doll-like rosy lips. Long black shiny, silky hair was now damp with the woman's worry. The otherwise astonishingly beautiful woman was now a ghastly wreck of her usual self. There were several other people in the room.

Most notable was the large, tall man-mountain old man. He was of typical northern rosy complexion but his eyes were deep azure blue. Just bellow his nose he had a bushy white moustache and he also bore an aristocratic looking pointy beard. The top of his head was shinily bald but where he had hair, it was very thick. The man was absolutely perfectly neat. He seemed stern and disciplined. His face bore a stone-cold emotionless mask, but his eyes also shimmered with worry. He was wearing expensive clothes. An old, antique pipe was smoking from the left tip of his mouth.

It was Jonathan Johnson Senior. And that man could be referred to as the Clan head of the Johnson family. He was quite the intimidating and imposing character. His two twin sons, his only, eldest child, daughter and his youngest son were also here. It was a rare occasion to see all of the Johnsons together. And it was a Grave occasion.

The Johnson twins were like two drops of water. They were identical twins. Jonathan Jr. and Joshua Johnson. On the inside, they couldn't be more different. Like Thor and Loki. It was funny how they could be so easily compared to them, because of their characters. And Jo Sr. was Odin himself, being so tall and scary and all.

The youngest Johnson son, namely Jasper, who was 27, was of his dad's pale complexion and azure blue eyes. His hair however was chocolate brown, like old lady Johnson, who was not present due to medical reasons. All four kids looked like their mother. Jasper's hair was shoulder-length, styled in dreadlocks, much to his old man's dismay. But Jasper loved his own style and he was also the family's first DJ. He was busy looking the internet for any possible clues as to where the precious Johnson Cubs were.

Jasmine was the only daughter of the old man. She looked exactly like her mother- chocolate, wavy brown hair, brown warm eyes, and very beautiful. She was sitting with the distraught mothers, comforting them. She was eldest, nearly 50 years old. She was unsuccessfully married, now divorced and had three boys, all of them bundles of Johnson pride and joy. They were not present, however, as two of them were in a Military Academy, and the third, the youngest, was with his father.

As one might've guessed, the last person in the living room was Fia's mom- a woman with the intricate, yet beautiful name of Jubilation. The usually stoic and collected woman was sitting there, her tears long dried up, just staring unmovingly in a single spot on the floor. She was too distraught by her own worry. She might've not been close to her only child, but once she was returned, she would make sure to change that. She wanted her baby angel. Oh, how she wanted to embrace her baby angel.

And yet we are back to the first person presented- Sarah Takahashi. Mother of one son- Hatorri Johnson. Ex-wife of Joshua Johnson, who she hadn't since their divorce, three years ago. If it was any other occasion, she was going to beat the crap out of him. Because he was a cheating bastard and a liar.

And yet he was the best father a kid could have. He took their kid somewhere every weekend, called everyday to hear him, and sent them money in order for them to be in a well off environment. He did everything to be there with him. And because of that she had not put her almost ninja ass into killing him for cheating on her with one of Hatorri's teachers- a woman 10 years younger than him.

Their son had changed school because of that and now, like Fia, he was studying in a private prestigious school. He had graduated with flying colors. And he wanted to become a doctor for a reason that Sarah was sure as hell was a certain black haired pale girl with crystal blue eyes.

She started crying even harder, wailing for her baby darling to come back home. She was a strong woman, really. But her only weakness and her only true love and happiness in her life was her only son- Hatorri.

As if on cue, Fia's mom started wailing as well, both hugging each other and crying their eyes out over their missing offspring, squeezing the guts out of the poor Jasmine.

The phone rang and suddenly everyone was as quiet as mice.

"Hello, this is Jonathan Johnson Sr. speaking."

Mumbles could be heard coming from the phone. The old man's entire attention was concentrated solely on the speaker on the other side of the line. Everyone was waiting, suspense filling the air.

"Very well, I shall inform them."

The two distraught mothers practically smashed themselves onto him, wide desperate eyes shining with hope, hangs grasping and ruining his perfect beige upper suit.

"Another person has gone missing." Jonathan announced. After a brief emotional pause, the women started wailing again.

"Any connection to our kids?" asked Joshua seriously.

"Some girl named Sylvia Bri. Orphan. Lived in Montana or something." J-J Sr. said, sighing in hopelessness.

"It's been two weeks! And this woman Sylvia Bri has been missing for a week before anyone found out she was actually missing." There was a slight note of rage in the old man's voice. "What is it with institutions these days, huh? A week! A whole bloody week! For all we know they might not even know where to look! I should just get my shot gun and call my brothers in arms and kill a few…"

"Dad, please!" Jasmine exclaimed warningly as the other two females were getting worser by each word he said.

"I apologize, Jazz." He said softly to his only daughter. "I just need to do something about this…" he sighed heavily and sat on the armchair next to the fire place. He took the metal stick and poked the embers to liven up the fire that was burning. It was an unusually cold day today, even if it was summer.

"It's ok… it's just so surreal… all of this. Hatorri is a black belt and Fiffie is …well, you know how Fia is…and that woman, from the Foreign Legion, she was with them too…I-I just don't know what to think…"

"I've made a decision." The old man finally said after 10 minutes of silence, ignoring the quietly weeping now women.

All looked up at him.

"I know that this may sound strange, but I believe that some of the Pups' friends might help us. Especially Fia's boyfriend-"

"Rival." Jubilation automatically corrected, the way her own daughter had done so many times. At the thought about it, she wept a bit harder, and Jasmine put an arm around her shoulder cooing soft, comforting words.

"That boy has some pack of brains on his shoulders. Where is he?"

"No one knows. He disappeared. But the police haven't announced him as one of the kidnapped." Said Jonathan Jr., "I think he may be with some friends. I know the boy well. He might be looking for a way to find them."

The Clan head nodded.

"Men, women, I believe that drastic occasions call for drastic measures. And us Johnsons, if I dare say, are known for being extreme and strong headed. We never give up. As such, I've decided to find the Leopold boy and his friends. They will need us during the search. And I have experience in tracking."

"What about the police." J-J Jr. said.

"They won't find out what we are up to until we find our children and the others." He answered chewing his words in passive rage.

"Where do we start?" It was Joshua this time.

"Where else? Vegas."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was really early in the morning. 3:27 in the morning to be precise. A random dog was barking in the distance, but other than that it was a quiet, slightly chilly night. A car parked in front of the building.

It was a rather large Nissan. And there were several people in it, people too unlikely to be seen together. Lilly-Anne was driving the large Nissan. On the seat next to hers Light was lightly (couldn't help it XD) dozing, his head limply tiled to the side, a small drool having found its way on the side of his face. He was also snoring cutely. In the back two rolls were cramped several people. Benjamin, or Ben, the Kisame Cosplayer, for protection reasons, Peter, who was also dozing, Edward, the pale Amedara Cosplayer, his partner in crime…err…Cosplay, a Hakushi Cosplayer, who seemed pretty ordinary without the paintwork but was actually a doctor, and his name was Karl. The other three were Kate, Malena, her Husband Marco and their two kinds, Tifa and Vincent, who were extremely cutely sleeping in their laps, Tifa holding her favorite plushie – a Mubi plush doll.

Lilly-Anne was very nervous for two reasons. First, she had never met the woman. Second, she had gotten a hold of her address via The Don, because only a handful of the AFC Inner Circle knew her address and on top of that Malena, the nice blue-haired woman did not know it.

And right now, she had to call her on the phone, in exactly 3:30 in the morning, introduce herself, explain their situation to her, and ask if they can crash in for an indefinite amount of time, with 2 kids and a pregnant woman. None of which she knew, at all. She wanted to hit her head on the steering wheel so badly right now. She would've done it by now too- if it wasn't for the fact she'd blow the horn and wake up the entire neighborhood.

She dialed the number The Don had given her. After 30 seconds there was no answer and she shut the phone. She was flushed from head to toe with embarrassment. She wanted to just go home and forget about this. But that thought vanished as soon as it appeared. Her missing mates were counting on her. And just because she was too much of a moralist to wake up somebody in the night did not mean that she had another choice she could come up with from thin air. She took a deep breath and exhaled heavily.

She dialed the number again. After 30 seconds, she was about to shut it down, when the call was answered.

"Mfff…'ello." It was an extremely sleepy voice of a young female in her early twenties.

'Thank you.' Lilly thought gratefully to nobody in particular.

"Erm...H-hi?" She started nervously, her voice a higher pitch than usual. "My name is Lilly-Anne Philips. I am …oh god… The leader of the Bleach Fan Club… You are friends with…err… Fiona Johnson and Michael Jessica Keats, right?"

"Mffwhuh?"

"Fia and MJ."

"Yeah…what about them…" the Revered asked.

"They were kidnapped and well… doyoumindhavinguscrashinginyourhomewithapregnantwomanandtwokids?"

"Yeah, sure… *snore*" Narsilion had fallen asleep again and by the noise she heard, Lilly guessed she had fallen asleep on top of her cell phone.

Lilly whimpered. She closed the line and dialed again.

Unbeknownst to her the sudden penetration of violent sounds coming from a certain communication device currently used as a make shift part of a pillow, had the poor Sam Taylor freak out of her poor mind and jump high up in the air, after which she fell dramatically on the ground. Lilly-Anne, however, heard the whole ordeal, as Narsillion's cheek had pressed the green phone button. She had heard an unwomanly yelp and then a painful thud on the floor. The Rangiku-girl cringed.

After several shuffling sounds, the phone was picked up:

"Hello?"

"Urm… I called earlier… the Leader of the Bleach Fan Club."

"What?" she asked confusedly, but at least fully awake, if a bit (very) grumpy now for being woken up in an ungodly hour of the night and in such a violent fashion.

"Can me and my friends stay for a while at your place?"

"What?"

"We're outside. I have a pregnant woman and 2 little kids with us and we really need your help."

Sam had the "WTF" expression on her face. She casually looked outside her window and indeed saw a rather large black Nissan 4x4 parked just outside the building.

Like any other normal person would do in such a situation, Sam simply closed the line. She was still at the window though.

She saw a woman with a strawberry blond hair exit the car from the driver's seat and look up right at her. She had seen the woman, once or twice, but she couldn't remember where…she said she was the BFC leader….oh yeah… Rangiku Matsumoto.

She saw how the woman dialed her number again.

"Fia and MJ are kidnapped along with other people. We're trying to find them but we have to be under the police's attention range. Please let us stay, they might be in danger but there are certain things I cant tell you on the phone. And Kate, the pregnant lady needs to pee, like real soon." She said, with pleading crystal blue eyes, looking up at Sam like a lost hungry puppy in the rain.

Usually, normal people would call the cops. But Narsilion knew this was serious just by the look in those sad, true blue, crystal blue honest eyes. She sighed heavily, wondering if she was doing the right thing.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Narsilion closed the line again, Lilly-Anne was the epitome of Downcast. How would she tell her comrades, all sleeping in that big black Nissan The Don had rented for her two days prior, that Narsilion had refused. Maybe they had to call her prior to coming? But the call was probably going to be traced… And with caution in mind she had also temporarily bought a new card.

She turned back to the car to break the news.

"Hey, Miss Philips-whazzit?"

Lilly's eyes widened obnoxiously and she turned around to see the young Revered female standing by the open front door of the building in her oversized light gray T-shirt that went all the way to her knees, that had a lovely comical cartoon on it- Mubi and Tobi in a self-shot, slightly skewed to the side picture ala photo. She had a par of cute pink bunny-rabbits slippers….with fake fluffy kunai sticking out of their heads and the XP expression on their bloodied faces.

Lilly was so happy, that a second later Sam was being suffocated by means of two large boobs, courtesy of the female Bleach Leader.

At 5:00 the group of renegade Cosplayer could be seen lying around Sam's place. And Sam was currently holding a sleepy Vincent, which , they had convinced her, was a future Mubi Cosplayer. Given that he kind of looked like a little Mubi, She instantly took a liking to the small boy with a Mubi plushie in a sleepy death grip.

"So, you're trying to tell me somebody is Kidnapping Cosplayers?"

They had been talking about their current situation, their finds and such.

"That is what we believe." Light said, yawning. " However it is only a theory, we might be wrong about the Misoshi person being a diversion."

"But how is it possible for people to disappear by a flash of light? Shouldn't people notice or something?" Sam asked, confusion apparent. "I mean they weren't kidnapped by aliens or anything, right?"

"We aren't even sure about that. The important thing is to find them as soon as possible, or half of us, including you, are going to jail."

"I didn't do anything!"

"How the hell do you think we had the money to make merchandize?"

"…"

"Point taken."

"Very well… Hm. You can stay, but I am not going to feed you."

"Thanks! And don't worry, we'll take up the expenses of your home, including food, for being here." Lilly said happily.

"With whose money?" Narsilion narrowed her eyes. They smiled nervously.

She was pretty mad about the mess she had been thrown into, but considering the situation, they were probably the best team to handle this… And Fia had spoken a lot about this Light fellow. And he was both cute and smart. And a Pein in the ass, according to MJ.

It was going to be crowded in her house and she just knew it!

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sylvia Bri was …well, not another ordinary woman. She had a styled shoulder-length hair, similar in a way to Sasuke's but not quite. With out the duck-butt part that is. Her eyes were like Elizabeth Taylor's- Purple, one of the things she really liked about herself.

Her skin was ghastly pale and it never seemed to catch any tan, or get sun burns, no matter how long she would stay in the sun when she had the chance to sunbathe. Because of her unusual complexion, and her general love of anime, she had become part of the Death Librarians. She was a member for almost two years and she was one of the more liked ones among the newbies. Light Yagami, the leader, real name Leo, as she had recently learned, had taken a liking to her for her exceptional tailoring skills. And she always carried a tailor's 'First Aid' kit to fix suddenly appeared flaws or cuts or something other on a costume. She was also an excellent cook.

There were a few things that summed up Miss Bri like nothing else did. First of all was, that she was 22 years old, she was 177, 8 cm tall and she was in what one could call acceptable level of fitness – healthy, but slim, not muscular.

Every person had their own likes and dislikes. Her favorite color was yellow, and despite popular belief she also liked playing RPGS and other such types of video games. She also loved sugar it its purest form. Her favorite music was soft, calming music. And when it came to cooking, sweet stuff was on the main list.

And then came blood and water. People say Blood is Thicker than water. Sylvia says Blood is the water of life. She had some kind of a fascination with blood. With it being the liquid of blood. And She loved water. She loved swimming by relation and as a result, she knew from a very early age she could not tan, for she lived at the public swimming pool during the summer.

She also loved the outdoors. She loved spending her time in the wilds, taking in the pine-smelling fresh moist air… she loved the solitude of it all.

Sylvia disliked loud sounds; that was obvious enough. And despite liking blood, she hated the color red. She also disliked Light. Simply because he had somewhat of a god complex and bothered her all the time to make him costumes among all other things and it got annoying after she sent him the third set of shirts, pants and generally Yagami Style clothing which, she was pretty sure of it, he wore in everyday life. Actually, she had no idea how right she was about it. He was also too flirty with that busty red-haired with orange tips woman, the Leader of the AFC. Not that she had anything against her, but she was too bossy to feel comfortable around her. People like that Itachi Cosplayer also got on her nerves. She was a snobby bitch. But being the peaceful person, seeker of inner peace and inner balance, she disliked confrontation, and she generally stood aside the Cos battles. She liked looking at the skits which used her costumes though, which was one of the reason she had joined the Death Librarians.

On a side note, she also disliked Light, because he killed L. And she was an L Cosplayer after all.

Sylvia was raised as an orphan til the age of 18, at which pont she had gone to college after earning a nice scholarship.

In elementary school, she had been mocked for being an orphan and had no friends that would actually stick by her when she would be in trouble. It took her most of elementary to learn about making clothes, and learn how to cook.

In middle school she was the most academic person, and everyone respected her, but she was not all that popular.Sylvia had at one point taken up piano lessons but she had quit because it was not for her taste. She could play a few tunes, however. About the age of 15 sshe had already set her gaze upon cooking and arts.

During High School she was a Valedictorian and a prom queen candidate. No one was surprised when she was voted as most likely to stay single forever. She Worked part time at a 4-star restaurant without the knowledge of the orphanage, and made sure not to get adopted- she was too used to being alone and fending for herself at that point.

Right now, Sylvia was a professional cook, with her own apartment. She was pretty proud with what she had done for herself. She was her own person and fresh out of college. She made a living out of making Cosplay costumes but she was seriously planning going to a good restaurant and start making a name for herself. Her sights were set straight to being a five-star cheff. It was going to be hard work and she had to make some sacrifices.

Right now this lovely heroine had just found out her trash can was full and was casually striding her way to the nearest trash can. It was night and she usually didn't leave her apartment after a certain hour. But she was a neat person and the garbage had to be taken out.

She was just outside the building. She looked cautiously around, as her neighborhood was not the safest place in the world. She sighed and slowly and quietly started to walk towards the trash can. She had a reason for that. Since recently, she had developed a bit of a phobia from street trash containers. A few months ago, as she was casually taking her trash out, in a night not unlike tonight's, and as she was about to drop the trash in the container, a person suddenly sprouted from it, yawning sleepily then grinning at her with a toothless smile. Several things happened. She threw the trash several meters into the air from fright. She screamed her lungs out. And she ran like a woman possessed and locked herself up in her apartment for two days in which she survived on her stack of canned beans.

After recovering (partially, mind you) from the initial fright, she had taken a serious liking to the idea of adding more locks to her door, which she did, buying a shot gun, a baseball bat and a few other things in the line of self protection. Including a book with the title "Awesome Karate- Self Defense for Dummies".

The book turned out to be a waste of money save for two or three tricks she found to be able to perform perfectly- a kick in the shins, a kick in the pack, and a kick in the chin. It was her little kick combo. She also had a hand combo of her own design- Bitch slap, Bitch slap, Kaching in the nose (upper cut) and again, a kick in the chin.

One would say that the kick in the chin was her signature move. Well… it is . Along with stabbing people in the jaw with whatever sharp she had. That was her signature move since 5th grade. She was not violent but she had to fend off the evil pre-preps, right? And she had an evil set of sharp, short nails.

Sylvia was a peaceful person with rare outbursts. Which were a bit panicky, because she never really wants to hurt people.

And so, back to her current doings. She was walking slowly, almost stealthily to the trash container. It was going to take just one swift swish and it was all over. And she prepared herself, she embraced herself emotionally to throw the damn garbage in the container and run for it in case there was another random toothless, homeless drunk person.

And as she was about to swish the trash, something strange happened. Suddenly, she felt incredibly heavy, as if the world had sat on her chest. Did she just receive a heart attack? It was so hard to even take a breath. It wasn't a heart attack, she lead a healthy life! What did she do? Bad Karma from previous life?

She noticed that she couldn't move. She was as still as a rock. And then she realized that this was no heart attack. She was scared as hell though, especially the world around her seemed to become more skewed and dim. There was a column of light about her and she nearly fainted. She just went out to take out the trash and now she was kidnapped by aliens!?

'HEEEEEEELP!' she screamed in her mind, as she was immovable in all senses of the world at the moment.

She began to feel stretched but she herself did seemed to be stretched. And then she blacked out for what seemed to be an eternity of pressure, pain, enormous weight, and being stretched and squished at the same time.

And all in the matter of two or three seconds. And then it was gone. And she was as she was- her hand ready to throw the trash, a determined expression on her face, almost like the spear throwing athletes on a world championship. Priceless.

The shock had some time to wear off though, as at first she did not register where she was. But it was dark and warm. And she as she finally noticed where she was, and by that unfreezed herself, someone spoke.

"Who are you?" the voice was sexy, calm, cold, with a purring evil undertone, a threatening voice.

Again, she took up the same position she was in, but this time looking directly at the location of the voice, her eyes wide with evident shock and fear. Like a deer caught by the headlights.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orochimaru was casually eating his wondrous breakfast when suddenly he felt the literal pop of a presence in his own abode.

His ninja skills immediately acted up and he looked at the direction of the presence. What he saw was a pretty, almost as pale as him, black haired girl with purple eyes, holding a plastic bag of sorts.

He hated intruders but something was wrong with this one. She seemed frozen in shock or something, which was weird, considering her intricate pose. And then she breathed out heavily and that was his cue to speak.

"Who are you?" he asked in his coolest, by his own opinion, voice.

What she did next nearly got him off his chair and on the ground…because it was hilarious. At the sound of his voice she was immediately alert. But she had just relaxed herself when she suddenly resumed the pose he found her in, but this time she was looking straight at him, with a scared, shocked expression, purple eyes dramatically wide.

Even he, embodiment of all evil, could not help but snort and then start laughing. Soon his cold laughter quieted down and he then proceeded by staring at her, taking her features in detail. She had now taken a more calm, and normal, pose, black plastic bag still in hand.

"Who are you?" he repeated in Japanese.

Sylvia did the one thing any girl in her situation would do.

"I was just taking out the trash, p-please don't hurt me!" She fearfully exclaimed in English, dropping the thankfully tied up bag (bad experiences teach) and holding up her arms in a protective manner.

The language she spoke was one he had never heard in his life. This sparked his interest. And how did she get here in the first place? She was obviously no ninja…was it possible….

He came closer to her , a bit more cautiously, and without killing intent. She was still very stressed but relaxed a bit from the change in the air.

She nearly hiccupped when he cupped her face with one pale hand to look at her. His golden slithed eyes were examining her with pure interest and slight fascination.

"Who are you?" he repeated slowly.

She blinked. Was this man…asking of her name? He looked like the Snake Sannin of the Naruto series… he was handsome but he seemed also to have a ruthless air around him… and it frightened her. He was like a Leopard and she was the baby impala the leopard was using to teach its cub how to hunt.

"Sy-Sylvia B-Bri." She said timidly, his hand still cupping her face. His palm was soft and warm, she noticed. And his fingers were very gently touching her face. She relaxed even a bit more, on a subconscious level. Wrong move around this guy, really.

He nodded. It seemed she was at least a bit smart, to have understood him, even if he spoke slowly.

"Orochimaru." He said then, raising his own chin in a dominant fashion.

She nodded.

He released his gentle grip on her face and in a hospitable fashion invited her to sit down. He then called a maid to bring her food and tea. She needed to see that he was her friend. Even if he wasn't.

While the maid was gone, she sat in the chair, looking about with morbid fascination and squirming in her chair. She had, somehow, ended up in Orochimaru's lair. Just peachy. And it had to happen right before her job interview too! And the old Pedo was trying to be friendly too. She wont bitch. She wasn't about to die. She liked her life the way it was.

And he was still staring at her, almost expectantly, as if waiting for her to tell him her life's story. The idea of the two of them gossiping and generally doing small talk like old women over a cup of tea sent shivers down her spine.

He noticed that and then tried to smile in a friendly manner. He said something slowly, which she could not catch. She should've taken up Japanese classes!

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Misoshi Romero was what would become Jiraya's fourth great disciple in the arts of hentai, ecchi and other not so looked up to manly activities. But that was long way from now. And now was Misoshi's light athletics practice.

Misoshi, as stated earlier, was a 20 year old Asian dude with the unusual green eyes. He had shoulder-length black hair which he kept sleeked back. He was of a pale Asian complexion, which easily brought out his big green handsome and hypnotizing eyes. He was also well-built and slightly muscular, yet slender and attractive. Long face, distinctive cheekbones, tip-tilted nose, thin lips, doesn't have too much facial hair (except the chin)- these were the features that summed his physique in general.

Misoshi was intelligent, well-read, rational, yet idiotic at times (especially around girls). He liked to be alone from time to time but really enjoyed going out with friends and having fun. He loved his real friends but had no qualms about making new acquaintanceships. He was also extremely serious when it came to something he decided to do, be it connected with sports, studying, or something else. But he was generally quite easy-going because of his natural intelligence and wits. He was basically a down-to-earth person and didn't believe in the occult, magic, aliens, ghosts and the like. He was generally neutral and preferred to keep his mind to himself most of the time, yet used to be originally a hothead and when push was followed by shove he was not afraid to speak his mind or solve things in a physical manner. Misoshi was the type of person that would do anything for someone he considere a friend (except commit a crime). He wasn't fashion-conscious and had his own dressing style, usually including baggy clothes and sneakers but he wasn't shy about showing off his physique.

Being the casual flirt that he was he was also about Facebook and some other, local sites.

He had these things in his description:

Likes:  
Friday nights, chocolate and all kinds of sweets, girls, athletics and sports, dancing and going to discos, foreign languages, playing the guitar, having a beer from time to time, music as a whole but is particularly fond of electronic music, The Prodigy, meeting new people, sleeping in, romantic comedies, archaeology and history, going out on dates, the summer, conversing with people.

Dislikes:  
Horror movies, posers, gossiping, being too busy, would-be friends, fatty foods (fast food especially), having to do something without being informed about it first, party crashers, himself when he is drunk, drugs, heights, needles, arguing with people, being lied to, drawing.

Needless to say he was the young man he was today thanks to a few things that happened in his life, including his grandparents. First he was a top notch light athlete and also top notch college freshman. College marked another turning point in Misoshi's life. Having graduated high school and being admitted into college with flying colors, he was one of the most famous freshmen around. He also continued doing athletics and had no intention of giving it up any time soon. It was also in his freshman year that he rediscovered his passion for girls and began to date quite intensively, yet he never got committed. Now in his second year, he is still dead serious about school but, as usual, finds time to do sports, go out with friends (and occasionally "do some lovin' " ).

That summed up Misoshi in a tea spoon. And about his current way of life, well… he was having the time of his life.

Until yesterday.

As usual he had practice every Saturday at exactly 5 am till 12 am. It was intense training for experts and he was the only one in his group NOT preparing for the upcoming World Championship. His trainer deemed him mentally challenged when he outright refused to join in for the glory of Japan. OF course, that did not mean he was the best in the group and was a good example for the rest. And he made them train even harder to become better than him. He always felt very smug when the trainer would start yelling at the rest for being a bunch of sissies and how he, speaking of Misoshi of course, was merely keeping up his figure out of leisure desire. There was nothing more pumping that comparing one to an athletical genius with no real desire to be world champion. Misoshi savored the pursuits of the mind….and skirts.

Still, in order to understand why he was now in the delicate and intimate position of being between the shapely, lovely legs of a young female he did not know, in the middle of no where, on had to know two words- Woodsworth Siblings.

Speaking of them, they were the three Ultra Rich heirs to an incredibly rich but sadly deceased parents. Their names were, by order of age, Simon, Helen and Hannah.

Simon was a bitchy, snobby brat, who was sexy in his own, snobby spoiled way. And knowing how to kick butt added up to his ultra-protectiveness of his two younger sisters.

Simon was the exact copy of Hyuuga Neji. 'cept his eyes were very light gray color, and had pupils. In fact, all three of them were like the Hyuuga's golden trio.

Helen, second of age, was the shapely, bitchy, snobby teen with a sadistic kink in her veins. She was otherwise very Lara-Croft-ish. And shapely in the most sexy sense of the word.

Hannah was the only down to earth person of the three. She was quiet and kept to herself. In fact, for her 12 years of age she was extremely mature. She was a bookworm, an encyclopedic factologist, and a perfectionist. She disliked chaos, as much as her siblings.

Simon's favorite Naruto character was actually Tayuya. He was 17.

Helen's favorite character was Kakashi. And she often went into long and tedious half hearted cat fights with L-chan over him, usually ending with the agreement to share him.

Hannah was still too young and yet to really hit puberty. Still, her favorite character, and not in a romantic way, was Asuma. Whom she deeply admired for his teaching skills. Because of that, Hidan was her least favorite character.

To sum it up, they were on a long vacation in the French Alps. And while snowboarding something weird happened. An avalanche. And just as it was about to hit, something sucked them up in an already too familiar for the reader's fashion.

At the same time two more people had disappeared, Misoshi being one of them, and also being the only one thanking the heavens for his godly position. And so, despite the cold and not wearing anything to protect him form the snow, he stayed like that for about an hour, enjoying his favorite position.

This was Life!


	14. Suna's Two New Residents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Consider me bribed :) I worked hard to find a way to copy the chapters that are no longer in my PC.
> 
> Anyways, here we have Tifa And Charlie

Chapter 14:

Suna's two new residents

Charlie was still unconscious in the hospital. It had been three days since the ninja had found them and the Kazekage had only agreed to help them in exchange for Tifa becoming a Suna Nin. If a person survived like she did in the Desert, then that person was incredibly fit and with amazing levels of stamina and endurance in general.

Tifa knew that her training and generally being part of the Foreign Legion helped a lot. But her feats were nearly impossible, now that she thought about it. She should've been dead. Dragging a young girl in her early teens and a ton of heavy luggage which for some reason she had convinced herself would be needed was an incredible, impossible feat. Even for a person like her.

Currently she was waiting for the Kazekage to show him what she was capable. Now, speaking of the Kazekage…he was DAMN hot. In her kind of way hot. Ruggedy hot. It was a hot day in Suna, something usual. And Tifa had managed to gain a healthy, very dark tan. And with her light colored eyes and white hair she looked extremely exotic.

The Kazekage finally arrived, with an entourage of two ANBU, she guessed by their masks. Her own entourage consisted of her bag of weapons and a Jounin woman who was keeping a weary eye on her.

"You told me you had some kind of a weapon that would interest me."

"I God damn do." She spoke curse words as casually as saying the sun is in the sky, and the sky is blue. The Kazekage was already used to it, even if it was annoying. It was hard to teach her out if it anyways, spending probably half her life with men as rugged and scary as her.

While traveling with Charlie, Tifa had found out something very interesting. She had absolutely no bullets. How did she find out?

They were attacked by a bunch of thieves at the only oasis they came across. Charlie was unconscious since, having hit her head hard on the ground. As she had started showing off her sharpshooting prowess and the men were dead within minutes. You see, Tifa was aggressive in any sense of the world. She was like a Grizzly mother bear. Hence why she was merely trying to knock them out. When they hit Charlie, however, she lost it, wiping them out, all 25 of them, in less than 15 seconds with her twin Magnum Guns.

And that was when she found out her bullets were made of chakra. They were white, with blue and white whisps about them. She also found out there and then that she was immortal in a way similar to Hidan. It had taken her the kunai stuck in her heart to realize that.

Only she knew that so far, so she decided to keep it to herself as much as she could.

Back to the point. The Kazekage gave her a signal to start. Not millisecond later one (they were two, though) gun shot could be heard. The Kage had seen only a flash of blueish white twin bullets.

There was a smug, arrogant smirk playing on her lips, and there were two smoking holes in the heads of the two dummies she had as targets.

The Kazekage's eyes widened. She was so fast. And she wasn't even a ninja! Her chakra was by no means trained. And no wonder- she didn't need it. Whatever these weapons were, only she could use them, as any other ninja got no result despite the detailed explanation on how to shoot with a gun.

She was pretty damn good. And she would have been a threat to the village had it not been for the red haired girl that was being taken care of in the hospital. She was not in a coma by any means. Just unconscious. It was kind of strange.

This Tifa girl… she was so strange. She had a rather morbid sense of humor, but most of his ninja enjoyed her gory jokes. Probably because they've seen things like that. And her jokes were funny, because they were true. And they wouldn't be funny if they weren't true.

On with the story. The woman had no fear of anything. She glared at everything with a measuring looks. She was very intimidating and despite how exotic she looked, she could easily befit a Suna Kunoichi…. Or more like ninja, due to her scary character.

The Kazekage's mansion was close to the hospital, and that was why she was now living with him and his three kids. Temari and her hit it off almost immediately, Kankuro seemed scared of her, even if he did not show it (the Kazekage knew him too well) and Gaara…

He had absolutely no idea what was going about in that demon filled head of his. The moment they made eye contact, the temperature in the room had dropped by 70 degrees the least. It was a staring contest, which, in other circumstances, would have been extremely hilarious. The two were staring unblinkingly at each other and battling for dominance. At the end, Tifa merely smirked and blinked a few times, completely ignoring Gaara. He generally did the same. Their battle of dominance was going to be continued another time. For now, they were equals.

Having seen their extremely interesting reaction to each other, the Kazekage could not help but be even more intrigued by the exotic woman which now resided in his house. Despite all the intimidation, she possessed a strange type of handsomeness he had never seen before. It was both in her pose and physique, and it was in her beautiful stern light hazel eyes. He didn't even want to admit to himself that he felt attracted to her, the way a wolf was attracted to an alpha female. And that was what she was. One crazy scary bitch.

As she casually sat down on the chair on his right side, the left being taken by his only daughter, Temari, he could not help but notice how at ease she was. She had a brush with death and she was shaking it of like a soft spring breeze. He had not realized he was staring at her for whole 15 minutes in which she ate in complete and utter silence, perfectly content. Temari had casually poked Kankuro and then proceeded giving looks towards their father until Kankuro got the hint.

He had merely grinned deviously, and his father hadn't noticed, by the way, and then continued with his lunch. He liked the new chick even if she was a crazy scary bitch. And she was so far nice with him and Temari. His only real concern was that she would just randomly snap and kill them all…great… that made Gaara and her two things to be piss scared before going to sleep.

Their first lunch together was not as awkward, and the Kazekage's kids were not present. Which in Temari's and Kankuro's head was a sign that their father had purposely sent them training in the grounds furthest of home, in order to make them eat outside.

That lunch he had managed a casual small talk, in which he had learned only that she enjoyed the food cooked here and that the desert climate, despite being so harsh, was to her liking. She also expressed her hopes that Charlie would like the climate as well, as she had no one else but her here to take care of her.

Like every other Alpha female bitch, Tifa also had a mother hen side, as she constantly talked about how she was worried if Charlie would like this and that. If fact, the Kazekage was surprised that the kid wasn't even related to her by blood. And he also was quite satisfied to hear on a subconscious level that she would be the same for any child.

She also reminded him of his long late wife Karura. But only slightly.

Right now, it was right after her little show of gun slinging prowess that he had taken her to a private dinner, in order to learn more about her. Her choice of food, as usual, was practical and heavy on calories, which she easily burned. She also seemed slightly exhausted, for, as he found out, the bullets were made of condensed chakra balls. That also added up to her appetite.

"Nice little place, this one." She casually started, for the first time initiating an actual conversation between the two.

"Indeed, it is the best restaurant in Suna."

There was silence once again.

"I was hoping to discuss your future here in the village."

"I am all ears."

"You seem reliable but trusting you for now is out of the question. It is a possibility that you would use your unique abilities against Suna once Char-Lee is safe again."

Tifa promptly left her fork in her plate. He assumed she was traitorous.

"I am a woman of my honor…Kazekage-sama." She said slowly, and in a steely, cold voice. " I follow a strict Code of Honor, sir."

There was a small pause in which she drew her breath and started quoting, not for a moment breaking eye contact, with that stern glare of hers:

"Legionnaire, you are a volunteer serving France with "Honor and Fidelity".

"Every legionnaire is your brother-in-arms, regardless of his nationality, race, or religion. You will demonstrate this by strict solidarity which must always unite members of the same family."

"Respect of traditions, devotion to your leaders, discipline and comradeship are your strengths, courage and loyalty your virtues."

"Proud of your status as Legionnaire, you display this in your uniform, which is always impeccable, your behavior always dignified but modest, your living quarters always clean."

"An elite soldier, you will train rigorously, you will maintain your weapon as your most precious possession; you are constantly concerned with your physical form."

"A mission is sacred, you will carry it out until the end respecting laws, customs of war, international conventions and, if necessary, at a risk of your life."

"In combat, you will act without passion and without hate, you will respect the vanquished enemy, you will never abandon your dead or wounded, nor surrender your arms."

Wow. He had to admit to himself he was impressed. Every word she spoke came not only from her mouth, but from her heart and her soul. And she was not even ninja! It was obvious by the way she carried her stem. She was in no way subtle, but she was cunning, calculating, always prepared.

Her so called "code of honor" was almost the same as the code of the ninja. Only it was more virtuous than the way ninjas were. She was a sort of perfect soldier…

"Are you a Samurai of some sort?"

"No, I am a Corporal of the French Foreign Legion. This means I have served for 6 years in the Legion. And prior to that I have been a soldier for the most of my life."

"I see. You have gone rigorous training. Or so you appear. Still, once you start training as ninja all will be clear. As you have noticed I haven't asked any questions concerning where you come from. This… America and Europe you speak of are not continents that I am aware of. You are not lying but that does not mean I would be at ease with you about."

"Do as you wish. You are the Kazekage." She said curtly.

"Hn."

"As you may have guessed…my youngest son in a dangerous, and sadly, unstable weapon. With your appearance here however, you can turn into a valuable asset to our village. I am looking forward to your future service as one of our ninja." He smirked.

"The boy is like me. I don't see why he can not be as much a valuable asset as I am."

"You do not know him."

"He has my eyes behind all the hatred and blood thirst."

"I fail to see that. He is but a monster."

"And I am but a soldier."

With that the professional aspect of their conversation was finished. They were back to random small talk, a.k.a. Zero. And he had lost some brownie points in her eyes.

And of course, one had to add a few words about Charlie. She was in her own little world, speaking to a very sexy looking one tailed raccoon demon chick in the darkest parts of her brain. They were having a deep and thorough conversation, and by the looks of things, the little red head, had forgotten to wake up.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE


	15. Back to Basics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fia is being a nuinsance in the Hospitals. Hospitals just don't work with her.

Chapter 15:

Back to Basics

Medical examination day had come and gone with little to no problems – Fia had only tried to escape the facility 15 times and had screamed bloody murder for about 5 hours straight, until some genius realized she was much easier to handle when knocked out. It was later that day that the medical staff found out she hated needles. She could also pack quite the punch when provoked. Sadly, she was also extremely paranoid. And she was also extremely good at barricading herself when needed – she was yet to be examined.

"Fia, we know you are in there."

"No, I'm not!"

MJ face-palmed herself.

"Fia, you are being ridiculous! Get out of there now!"

Rose was still trying to make the paranoid blonde exit the restroom on the seventh floor of the hospital. 3 hours had passed since they had found her hiding in there.

"Urgh…." Came the exasperated sigh of the orange tipped red-headed Leader of the AFC. She adjusted her sunglasses. She had yet to receive permission to show off her Rinnengan eyes, not that she had discussed it that thoroughly with Pein.

"I give up!" she announced and slumped on a waiting roll's chair.

"Is she always like that?" Takeshiro asked. He had been with them during the whole ordeal, being their caretaker and all.

"There was this time we tried to hypnotize her…and well…ahem…paranoid Fia is paranoid." MJ said as a matter of factly.

Takeshiro did not say anything. He was thinking more of the lines of psychotic but since he was on a mission, being polite was his priority. He nodded with a fake understanding smile.

"She isn't crazy, she is just too paranoid over some things…" the black headed girl added, knowing too well that expression and seeing through it. "It's the sugar. If she had less energy to deal with, she would be normal. She is like this… some times she is even violent…"

The ninja was surprised he had been seen through. Then again it was not so surprising, seeing as these two girls were having the blonde to deal with on daily basis. True, she wasn't so bad most of the time, but some of her reactions were embarrassing or disturbing or just plain both. It was a puzzle for him how she had so much energy. She always slept restlessly, mumbling in her sleep, moaning, cringing, grimacing in all kinds of ways and trashing in her bed. And she usually ended up cocooned in her own bed covers and her blanket… Takeshiro subdued the urge to roll his eyes. If the three were strange, Fia was definitely the strangest of them all. Timid and at the same time head-first in everything, be it dangerous or not. She seemed afraid of everything and then again she seldom cared for her own being, having seen her brawling with MJ for the last spoon of chocolate for their 'pancakes'. The blonde was vicious like a wild animal, and she was energetic like a 4 year old on sugar. Then again maybe it was the sugar's fault… or her diet's fault. She constantly nibbled on something, sweet or not.

When they would start training he would make sure she ate properly. She also needed to lose weight in order to be fitter as a ninja. But something deep down inside him told him that physical training was going to be the least of his problems… especially if he had to deal with something like this on a daily basis. MJ and Rose had told him she was easy to get used to.

Takeshiro looked at the locked Men's restroom door. It was completely barricaded. How, he had no idea. And he also wondered how the hell he was going to explain to Leader-sama that he failed to complete his mission because the blonde bimbo had a fear of needles. In fact, he wondered how other ninja had not been sent for him yet, as he had to report HOURS ago. The girl was a royal pain in the ass. She was too creative for her own good and right now no one could enter or leave the men's restroom. Luckily she had no hostages. She was all alone in there.

Takeshiro sighed. Of all the places she could have chosen to hide, the men's restroom was the one he never thought of. And he was a god damn ANBU captain. It was embarrassing, especially because he had been beaten in a mind game of hide and seek by a little girl who wasn't even a ninja!

L-chan was watching the man contemplating and wondering what to do. She looked about. There were at least five medic Nins standing there, waiting for orders. Two more Medic Nins were trying to open the door. But it was impossible. Despite how frustrated she was, she couldn't help but smile. This whole idiotic situation reminded her of when she was staying at Doctor Keats' hospital for yet another minor plastic surgery to remove a few more crocodile scars. All was fine and dandy until some idiot of a medic had decided to tell the girl she was getting a local shot. Of all the things to have feared, she just had to have needles as her ultimate phobia. Fia also hated heights with a passion.

Instead of the restroom she was using now, back then she had barricaded herself in her own room. Of course, it had wide windows but they also had no ninja to bust through them. Here however the men's restroom was the perfect defense against the ninja and nothing short of blowing a hole in the wall was going to get her out of there.

After her previous attempts to run away, 15 to point out again, the hospital's security had blocked all of the exits, even the air vents. It was a matter of time before the blond was going to raise the white flag, but until then, it was probably going to take DAYS, knowing how stubborn she was.

Still, it was a brilliant move. L-chan was certain Takeshiro wouldn't have guessed it in a million years. Very sneaky and creative.

At least she wasn't in a stupid hospital gown like the first time something like this happened. And that time the only thing that had made her leave the 'fortress' was MJ' sexy doctor dad…

L-chan's eyes widened in realization.

"Eureka!" she exclaimed happily and victoriously and those around her, save MJ, looked at her weirdly.

"Well?" the black haired girl looked up at the now standing Rose.

"I know how to pry Fia out of there! There is no way in hell she would resist!"

"What is it?" Takeshiro asked, hope evident in his tired, slightly bloodshot from nerves eyes.

"MJ, remember last time this happened?"

"So this has happened before?" Takeshiro's question was ignored.

"Of course I do! She was running around butt naked with one of those ridiculous paper hospital gowns…" the girl suppressed a devious snicker.

"And?"

"The point is that MJ's dad finally came and said he would never forgive her…"

"Bwuahahahaha… ahem… err… he said he would never forgive her for being such a coward." And the black haired girl burst into a fir of laughter and then suddenly stopped and shivered, as if a bad thought suddenly occurred to her and she was trying to shake it away.

"And she went out because he had called her a coward?"

"Yes and no." was L-chan's cryptic answer. "Fia has a crush on MJ's dad from like, since forever. Can't blame her though." The red head snickered.

"Fia merely greatly admires my father because he saved her life!" MJ exclaimed indignantly, a scowl marring her face.

"Keep telling yourself that." L-chan mumbled. MJ did not hear it, but Takeshiro, being a ninja, did.

And , by again being the ninja he was, Takeshiro decided to take things in his own hands.

"Fia-chan, stop being such a coward! You are hurting my opinion of you! I thought you wanted to be a great ninja, but I guess I was wrong!" And the Oscar for leading male role goes to….

"No! You're married! And probably have a couple a kids too!"

The fuck? L-chan and MJ couldn't help but fall of their seats and roll on the floor laughing their asses off. Takeshiro's expression was priceless. Where were their cell-phones when you needed them? Probably still being studied by ninjas deep within a mastermind's lair.

In the mean time poor Takeshiro-'sempai' was wondering several things. First of all, how did she know he was married with kids? He was pretending being single, seeing their obvious adoration of good looking male physique, which was supposed to make his mission to find out more about them easier. In some ways it did. In others it made his life hell. Like shopping for female 'necessities'. He shuddered.

The two girls stopped laughing when they saw Takeshiro's scary, serious expression. His eyes were gleaming dangerously.

"How does she know I am married with kids?" he was letting off a lot of killer intent. All were quiet. Until MJ and L-chan looked at each other and were now howling with tears in their eyes, again laughing their asses on the floor. That really ticked Takeshiro, but he decided, for the last time, to be a bit more patient. When the laughter died down, L-chan started speaking.

"It was pretty easy to figure it out. You see, Sempai, you're hot. And hot men are either married or gay. At least those your age. So, in order to figure out whether you were gay or not…"

"…we asked you to come with us on a shopping spree…"

"…which we always do when a hot guy like yourself is willing to hang out with us."

Takeshiro was dumbstruck. The hell were they talking about?

"What?"

"Gay men know designers. Gay men like shopping sprees. And gay men help women choose tampons."

"You were practically counting the milliseconds until you had to go home. It was like, ultra obvious."

"And how would you know I have two kids."

"Only a guy who has kids can have the nerves to take up Fia's sugar highs. And you just informed us you have two kids. Plus, it was obvious. Any woman that you have would want a kid to keep you around."

The 'Duh' expression was on his face. Amazing deducting skills. These girls would make great spies. That, however, did not mean they could toy with him like that.

"And now HOW do we get her out of there?"

"Only Pein-sama can do that." L-chan said, holding back another laughing fit.

Leader? But why in the name of all the Kages would he ever agree to come to the hospital and actually get the bimbo out of the restroom? There was no way in hell that would…at this point Takeshiro realized he could use a Kage Bunshin with the Henge of Pein… but he needed his permission first.

"Excuse me for a while." With that Takeshiro poofed and disappeared.

"And we are back to basics." L-chan stated, snorted a bit, and sat leisurely on one of the chairs.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE… I R EVIL BWUAHAHAHAHA!

When Takeshiro finally appeared… or rather had the nerve to appear in Pein's office that late afternoon, said Leader was wondering for a while how exactly to maim him for being so late. He had expected his report around as late as 10 am…not it 5pm!

"Why haven't you reported yet?" his tone was dangerous, killer intent lingering in the air about him. Pein had always been a stickler to reports, paper work and properly done missions.

"There have been several drawbacks…the Jessica girl and Rose were easy when it came to the medical examination. But we have failed to obtain the blonde. She has a severe fear of needles…" and Takeshiro proceeded to explain how his day, err... mission… had been so far. It felt nice to vent it all out, especially as a report.

"You are telling me that you, my best and most loyal ANBU Captain, has been outsmarted by a 17 year old blonde bimbo?" Pein said it more as a fact that a question.

Takeshiro was very embarrassed by it but still answered dutifully.

"Yes."

"And you have tried everything but demolishing the wall of the men's restroom?"

"Yes."

"What are you doing here then when your mission is not complete yet, then?" Pein's ringed grey eyes narrowed, the rain outside getting stronger.

Takeshiro suppressed the urge to gulp in fear.

"Rose said the only way to get her out of there was you to order her out."

Pein blinked. What?

"What?"

"Apparently the girl takes orders only from you." He stated. It was not a lie and it was better than to be the one to tell him the crazy blonde had a crush on him. Like he wanted to be minced just because he had been in some way disrespectful.

"I ..see…" a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. "You are here to ask a permission to Henge as myself, am I correct?"

"Hai." Takeshiro nodded.

"Hm… I shall go there myself. I want to see this girl's creativeness myself. And then I shall see how to… handle her."

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE….*pant pant*

L-chan and MJ were talking casually on the topic of which type of swimsuits were "In" this year when suddenly two 'Poof!''s were heard. MJ blinked. L-chan might've blinked but her sunglasses had a mirror-like coating on the outside, hiding her eyes so there was no way one could know. Takeshiro had returned with Pein.

Everybody about started bowing, and not feeling their lives safe as they were sitting so leisurely, the two girls decided to give their respect as well and bowed. Pein seemed pissed. And Takeshiro was smug-looking. MJ mentally scowled. Bastard.

"Fiona, get out of there. You are not only being extremely ridiculous but also I am having second thoughts of leaving you alive after this tedious ordeal you've put Takeshiro through."

On the other side of the men's restroom door was Fia, holding a metal stick, or one of those things that kept up high the plastic med-packs. It had gotten quiet… real quiet… when she heard his voice, she did not answer. What if that was not Pein? Still… it was too quiet…it had to be him. And that meant she had to get out of there anyways. If it was only Takeshiro with a, let's say a Kage Bunshin, henged to look like Pein, then she was not supposed to know that. And if it really was Pein, then he was going to kill them.

She bit her lip. What was she going to do? They were going to stab her with icky needles. And she was hungry. She felt her ego and her pride severely hurt as she started swiftly to remove door after door from the only exit to the men's bathroom. She had thought about ditching this place and try get out through the small window on the other side of the barricaded door, but first, she had too big breasts, and second, she was on the seventh floor and she would have been caught.

MJ and L-chan looked at each other as they heard the sounds coming from the men's restroom. She was coming out.

Pein expected the girl to timidly appear before him. But when she got to the door itself, she opened it swiftly and made a dash for what he thought was the exit. He instinctively went to grab her, which had been her plan all along, by the way, and when he slid one arm around her waist in order to stop her, she did the one thing he never expected her to do.

After a few seconds of shock, which was evident in his widened ringed eyes, Pein realized that it was the girl's strong arms that were around his own waist. No one dared make a sound for his attempt to grab her had been turned into a returned hug. And that was the point in which he realised he had been outsmarted by a 17 year old blonde bimbo.

Now, on Pein's side, one had to say that he was not wearing his cloak as it had been left hanging on the back of his comfy chair. He was wearing a standard ninja outfit, which meant that Fia could feel the ripping muscles from underneath… and not to mention a few of his piercing thingies slash chakra emitters.

Of course, that also meant that he could feel how fit or whatever she was her body was. She had a questionable fitness, but she was not fat, he could feel she was mostly firm muscle mass and she had a pair of huge squishy breasts that were now pressed against his abdomen. She had quite the voluptuous body and he was one of the lucky few to have known this fact first hand.

On Fia's side, she had done the one thing she could think of in order to really get close to Pein – rocket tackle. She expected him to see through her move and poof out of her way, but what happened made her the happiest Fangirl in the universe. Pein had made a move to grab her. And in the milliseconds she had before he could have a firm grip on her waste, she spinned around and embraced his waist tightly, burrowing her face in his chest.

MJ had buried her face in her arms, too embarrassed to look up. She knew Fia was going to do something and she dared not look out of fear what she was going to see. Judging by the complete and utter silence, something was terribly wrong or embarrassing.

L-chan poked her.

"You can look up now." She was the first person to dare speak and break the silence. She had the comfort of knowing Pein wouldn't kill her since she was the only other person with Rinnengan, so it was obvious why she was also the only one who seemed to be completely at ease. Well, it was that, and the fact she was the Leader of the AFC and things like that were occurring on a daily basis. Well, not exactly but you get my point.

MJ uncovered her eyes and saw Fia and Pein hugging. Most people do a double take. MJ had to do a twelve take. When did they get that close. Then she saw how Fia looked up at Pein, smiling happily and innocently, and he was looking down at her, with confusion all over his face.

They guy had, obviously, been a 'glomp' virgin, meaning he had never been glomped before.

Also, Fia was 175 cm tall and Pein was 176.5 cm tall, but the way she had hugged him had made her bend down a little in order to do a glomp and not a normal hug. And that was why, had he noticed, Pein would've had a perfect view of her delicious looking back and backside a.k.a. bum. And also why she was looking all the way up to his face and he was looking down at her.

They released each other at the same time. She was still smiling happily, and cutely at him, and she was rocking back and forth on her heels.

"I'm ready to take a shot now." She stated happily.

Fia had just had a brush with death. And she was smiling at said death. And Pein finally recovered from his shock and was now glaring at her. But she kept on smiling. He sighed unaudibly. There was no getting heads with this girl. So he decided that killing her was not an option. She could be such a perfect spy… if only she could behave…

"Behave yourself." He told her simply and unemotionally, and left with a poof!

The rain started again. When Fia had hugged him he had been so shocked the rain had stopped.

And yes, Fia behaved herself, smiling all the way to the medical examination room. Everything took a total of 15 minutes. Including the simple needle that was required to draw a small amount of blood from her. Turned out she was completely healthy and she was given an OK sign to do heavy physical labour in the form of training.

But she did not complain. She kept on smiling happily and MJ and L-chan were sure she was going to be glowing like that for a whole week the least.

It was dinnertime when they managed to get back to their apartments. Again, they had gathered in L-chan's apartment and Fia was swiftly preparing a big meal for tonight. They had only had a small breakfast after all and her stomach especially was growling like a lion announcing his territorial possessions.

During dinner time they commented on today's interesting day, mainly L-chan and MJ explaining what exactly happened while she had barricaded herself in the men's restroom. They were laughing heartily about the whole ordeal.

"Fia, I think you've created another Urban Legend." L-chan then stated seriously.

"Believe it!" Fia exclaimed, doing the good guy pose with the thumbs up.

Meanwhile, in another part of Amegakure, Konan was looking strangely at Pein. He was acting a bit weirdly.

"Is something wrong, Nagato?"

"Everything is just fine."

Konan nodded but she knew there was something which he had possibly decided to spare out of embarrassment. Lucklily the people who had become witnesses to probably the most embarrassing moment in his life weren't as stupid as to start rambling what happened. People valued their lives…except maybe a certain blonde. She made quite the impression of herself and right now he was sure that there was so much more to these girls that he wondered how he was going to deal with them… maybe the rigorous training would help keep them under control.

If he only knew….


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

Evaluation of Ame's Golden Trio

Takeshiro was doing his best to update the reports on the three strange girls. As far as he was concerned, they were nothing but a bundle of trouble. Well, only the blonde one was gnawing at his nerves. The redhead and the black-haired girl were quite normal if he could even use the word and even one of the three in the same sentence.

But whenever the blonde was up to something, the other two either pretended not to know anything or they helped her. And MJ would usually try to keep her in line by whacking her behind the head or kicking her in random places.

The ANBU captain sighed and massaged his temples. In his entire career he had never seen civilians like them. First it was like they found absolutely everything completely fascinating. Then they started to get used to it. And then they were acting as if they were in an amuzement park. Or something.

And every night was karaoke night. Sure, they were entertaining, but weren't they overdoing it? What were they trying to prove? And when they were alone they seemed more serious, worried, more mature. They always spoke in that weird language of theirs and it was impossible to understand them save for when they said a name he knew.

They were too content with the fact more than half of their possessions were still in the hands of his research team. What were those girls up to? Pein should've killed them when he had the chance… hmm… or rather, since he IS the leader, why not kill them right away?

Takeshiro wondered how long this "easy" mission would be. Pein had assigned him in the hopes of learning as much as possible about them. The leader had told him that when he first was face to face with the redhead, she had recognized him. And their outfits…everything about them was so outlandish, so different…alien…and yet the same. The ANBU captain was disturbed by that. And when you were around 30 and with his rank and profession….you don't get disturbed let alone bothered by anything. Their story had many loopholes.

But the three agreed to become Pein's lackeys almost immediately. And they didn't seem to be a threat – only extremely annoying, but that was it. Apart from his own opinion, though, these girls easily adapted to their new home and were very friendly, charismatic even.

This Romano Rose was, to put it bluntly, a person who was impossible to argue with. Had he not been a ninja he would've had a hard time understanding how her mind worked. She was an observer. She gathered facts and digested them and used them to her advantage. Most of the time she was quiet and smiled politely. When needed she gave her opinion and it seemed that the other two listened. The way this woman acted told him that she was very intelligent and educated. Of course, she had her moments of irregular behavior, granted she was friends with the blonde demon spawn.

As for her skills… it was hard to evaluate her from what he had seen for two weeks, one of which she had spent in captivity. She was obviously very fit and her sheer nature demanded respect. Rose was physically active and quick witted, and hard to decipher. She was of ninja material.

Takeshiro added all the useful information he could think about Romano Rose. He gave her file one last thorough look, in case he had missed something. His eyes lingered on her photo and Takeshiro allowed himself to have the liberty to wonder where could have such a woman spawned. The very air about her…and generally the three of them was completely different from anything he had seen. It was unnerving how they claimed to have come from a completely different culture and yet to be so accustomed to the local traditions and kinks.

Next in his hands was Jessica's file. Pale complexion, blue eyes, raven black straight silky hair. She was gentle, yet cold, almost like snow. He was sure she had suffered some form of loss due to her distant attitude towards people she did not know. She had a strict circle of friends and she liked to keep to herself. Any form of social activity she participated in was ignited by the blonde abomination…err, Fiona. The way she communicated with people made it clear to him she came from a wealthy household. He could also call her a snobbish and demanding girl, a perfectionist even. Her manners were perfect. In a way, Takeshiro made a connection between her and the red head. He wrote down his suspicions of the two's wealthy origins. It was just too obvious, and there were things, like their taste for luxury and their perfectly kept nails and hair, that couldn't be faked in any way.

Out of the three, MJ was with the most demanding taste, and never settled for anything less when it came to quality. There were many things, however, that Takeshiro could find out and understand about them. Despite the fact both Rose and Jessica came from wealthy families, there were some differences between them.

For example, the way they spoke. The three girls spoke in three completely different dialects. Rose's voice was silky, slightly deep and seductive. It was a calm and commanding voice that demanded immediate respect. She spoke with everyone as an equal, but he knew better, that voice spoke of her sheer natural dominance. And despite her glasses, he knew that whenever they chatted, she would gaze intently into his eyes, assessing fully his words and any meaning behind them. He wondered how deep her gaze could go…there were already rumors that Pein-sama could read minds, which made the ANBU captain all the more weary when he dealt with the woman.

MJ was completely different. Among the three she spoke the rarest. Her voice was like her, gentle, refreshing, like rain or softly falling snow. It was a soft, if a bit weak, but he was sure it was because she did not use it often. Unlike Rose, MJ's voice didn't need to be demanding – Keats Michael Jessica always got what she wanted. The girl was an introvert with a dark past. That was his guess. However, she was more than what she seemed to be. Despite her blaring aristocratic behavior, she also had a bit of a temper, and Takeshiro could easily give her the passive-aggressive tag. He hadn't seen her do the passive-aggressive act, but her blonde friend avoided making her angry at all costs, and when she did so, it was never anything serious.

MJ also seemed to share the blonde's morbid sense of humor. After all, he had seen how smug she was whenever the demon spawn would do something potentially dangerous or incredibly stupid. She seemed to enjoy seeing other people suffer to some level and Takeshiro's ninja gut feeling was telling him that she was not above being sarcastic or even cynic.

And another thing Takeshiro had noticed was how they tried to behave. For Rose and MJ it seemed to be easy, but every now and then the raven headed girl would randomly, in his eyes that is, whack, smack, kick, poke or pinch the blonde and would scold her quietly in their language. The blonde demon spawn would then precede with sulking or mock offence.

Obviously, MJ was keeping her in check. And Takeshiro had the distinct feeling he should be grateful to her for that.

Physically, MJ was as fit as any Kunoichi. She was very agile and her motions were fluid and graceful, like a cat's. That girl was obviously trained in the arts of Taijutsu. He wondered how good she was. In any case, molding her into a ninja was going to be the easiest, compared to the other two.

Her talent with the guitar was another thing that intrigues him. She did not seem the type to bear such arts in her heart. And her doodles, that he had found among her things spoke of a keen eye, the eye of the artist. He wondered how good would a finished piece of hers would be, if just a sketch was already a masterpiece.

Among the three, it was MJ that was the most mysterious. She reminded him of that Itachi Uchiha, the Clanslayer, who he had the chance to see on several occasions. In fact, the first time he saw the girl, subconsciously he thought it was that same Uchiha- they were so alike.

He added whatever he thought important in her file and checked it over. MJ was the youngest, but she also seemed to be the most mature. He double-checked her file and then apprehensively handled the last file and the current bane of his existence.

Takeshiro exhaled audibly and a painful grimace appeared on his face. Johnson Fiona was one sexy blonde he could live without. He mentally shuddered as he looked at her photo.

Tall, curvy blonde, with long, wavy and slightly curly golden locks. Beautiful bronze tan. Deep, vivid, azure sapphires for eyes. Thick lips and the most delicious body he had ever seen since the last edition of the Icha Icha series. That summed up the blonde's beautacious qualities.

But behind the looks of an angel was hidden the spawn of Satan. She was one naughty foxy little girl. Takeshiro frowned. She would make a nice kunoichi, but he felt sorry for any man who would try to woo her. That girl enjoyed toying with men's emotions… to some extent. She used men the way she pleased. The girl did not even have to be seductive- she did it all wig that cute innocent azure gaze, her pouting thick lips and that moany, pleading voice. Chills went down Takeshiro's spine. If Rose and MJ were beautiful, then Fia was an outstanding, unearthly beautiful.

It had taken him only a few hours, however, to get over his infatuation with her and realize just how devious her mind was.

And ever since that first day of his mission, he had vowed to himself to watch out for any move she made. He wanted to dub her a man-eater, but he couldn't. She toyed with men but she did not flirt in any way, nor display any type of indecency in such a way. She was merely, childishly, innocent… or pretended to be.

Takeshiro really did muse over the topic of Fia's psyche. He had to, really. After several days he finally came to the conclusion that there was a time in which she had truly, childishly, been innocent, but something had fundamentally screwed up her way of existence…not to mention how gluttonous and lazy she was. He had heard of the Akimichi clan who used food as part of their jutsu. It was a Konohan clan. He also knew well about the Nara clan, who were also Konohan clan, infamous for their laziness and their great tacticians. In fact, he was really proud of himself for scarring one Nara Shikaku's face.

The ANBU captain smiled smugly at the memory So much for being a genius. He missed the days in which ninja fights were just ninja fights. Today there was just too much corruption and politics and a ninja such as himself suffered from that's. And that was one of the main reasons why he joined Pein's cause.

He was getting off topic. Takeshiro shook his head and concentrated on the task at hand, no matter how much he disliked the blonde demon spawn. He needed a vacation. Maybe he could go somewhere with his wife and two kids…

It was one of those moments in which he really hated his job…

If he had to sum up Fia in a single sentence or phrase, he would go with : unstable and unpredictable.

At first sight she appeared to be a timid, cute and helpless girl. Amongst the three she was the least fit. She also seemed to be slightly chubby, but any self respecting ma would tell you they preferred women like her. And she wasn't fat or anything. She had an extra 10 kg that puffed her up a bit but did not ruin her figure. That also added up to the damsel in distress effect she had on men.

Of course, in his eyes, that was all a trick of the light. She was always munching on something sugary or on junk foods and he wondered whether she cared how much she spent and that her allowance could only handle this much. Still, she was either extremely hyper, or too lazy to even get out of bed. As MJ had told him on numerous occasions, Fia was not bipolar, she was either sugar high, or recuperating from her sugar high.

And with such gluttony she should've been the size of a well-fed cow by now. Only once he had heard, a slip of words by Rose he was sure, that her brain ate up all the extra calories. That unnerved him greatly. As a ninja he always looked underneath the underneath, and for him that little slip was very important. What kind of brain would eat up so much energy? A very active brain, of course, a smart brain.

His theory was getting more and more evidence by the minute. Her curious eyes soaked up everything like a sponge, evaluating it, refining it, and stacking it for later use. He mentally shivered as he remembered the glint in her eyes when she asked to see his weapons, kunai and shuriken.

At first glance, she was your typical blonde bimbo. But he knew better. He knew way better. And he knew that glint…the glint in the eyes of a mad scientist. He knew that glint well.

This was not common knowledge but back in the day, when he had yet to apply for ANBU, he was one of the ninja that worked occasionally with the traitor, Orochimaru, then still a member of Akatsuki.

It was only the other day, however, when the girl had managed to fool Pein into sharing a glomp with him (it was an interesting word he learned from them), that he finally realized they were dealing with an unstable, unpredictable, in her late puberty and with raging hormones, genius.

It was then that everything had clicked into place- the foxy grins, the friendly attitude, the occasional pranks, her observations that she always presented as the most obvious things in the world… everything.

If he hadn't been ANBU captain, he probably would've never realized it. In a way, he understood how her mind worked, to some extent, of course. As per usual, normal life was extremely boring for geniuses. And being the overconfident blonde that she was, she barely escaped from the trouble she caused. And she caused trouble to make everyday life interesting. That explained her defective 'common' sense of self-preservation.

The girl was also extremely resourceful. She possessed an incredible amount of encyclopedically correct knowledge and constantly made small comments on this and that. One time she was staring at the shrouded in rainy clouds sky when she simply said: "Some times the clouds are higher…other times they are less thick and way lower… but the rain is still the same."

Was it possible she saw the difference between real rain and Pein's Rain Jutsu?

After a few moments of contemplation he wrote down his suspicions of her suspected genius mind. He added a note to check her IQ.

To be honest, he mused, despite her supposed genius, he saw how close and high she regarded her friends. She seemed loyal to them and would sacrifice herself for them. That was what he learned of her while she spent a week at the interrogation building.

She would make a good ninja.

Takeshiro filled up her file and decided I was high time to go to bed, for tomorrow he was going to test them under the watchful gaze of the Leader.

In the end, everything was expected by the three. He only could hope he would remain relatively sane after this whole ordeal.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE…. The next morning!

It was a wonderful morning in Ame. It had rained all night and right now the sky was clear of all clouds and the streets were shining from the morning sun's rays.

The air smelt fresh of the night's rain and it was damp and cold, but the rays of the sun were warm and bright. The birds were chirping and it was the cue for Fia to stretch in all possible directions, cracking every single joint in her body. Two azure sapphires for eyes blinked open and then the blonde raised herself in a sitting position.

The blonde yawned and then swiftly jumped off her bed. The first thing she did was to open up her windows to let the fresh air into her apartment. People say the day was reflected by the morning, and that particular morning Fia woke up happy, cheerful, in a content enough mood to start humming 'Ego' by Beyonce. In fact, soon enough her whole apartment was sounded by the girl's singing.

And it was only natural for the ninja she was sure were spying on her to have an early morning entertainment in the form of a capela singing. The girl kept singing while she fixed her bed and then proceeded cleaning up her apartment in general.

Of course, Fia was not the type to do any housework. It was MJ that usually scolded her every morning to at least do her bed and wash the dishes. It was the love bug that had bit her. Kind of obvious, really. Who wouldn't be like her when she had shared a godly glomp with the sexy ass Deva Path? And the Deva Path had a well defined six pack and had lovely muscles all over.

It was, however, dawn, which meant it was around 5:00 am. Now, she was usually woken up by MJ who would be banging at her bedroom door to feed them every morning. It wasn't that Fia wasn't a morning person. That wasn't the case at all. Fia would fall asleep without any problem at any hour of the day. She didn't have a natural Day/Night clock, given the fact she played computer games and usually had some really funky raiding schedules.

Funnily enough, that was a desired ninja quality, as Fia found out when, during yesterday's medical examination, she was asked whether ruining her day/nigh biological clock would take a toll on her. Medic-nin were surprised when she had proudly announced she had none.

Speaking of weird, Fia was now taking a long shower. After an hour long scrub and other hygienic needs being fulfilled, the blonde carefully chose her first training ninja attire.

A sport's bra and matching black ninja pants and sandals, plus the ninja accessories. And on top- her beloved orange jacket. She had gotten it two days prior from the dry-cleaners. Needless to say, that morning she had one more reason to be happy.

Today was a big day for her and her two comrades. Takeshiro- senpai had told them today they were going to start thir ninja training. He had been fairly serious about it, and she couldn't help but feel slightly apprehensive. She expected some form of revenge for all her pranks.

As she was doing her hair Chun-Li…err.. I mean Ten-Ten style, she vowed to herself to face his wrath like a true Johnson and then prank the living hell out of him like a true Naruto Cosplayer. And then she got off track and couldn't help but think about how amazing Pein was. Last night she had the most atrociously girly dream of the two of them preparing to marry and having a wonderful royal-princessy wedding. Fia blushed at the memory of the dream and giggled fangirlishly.

It was anyone's guess that Fia glowed with love. She didn't care whether it was a possible love or not. She was just happy by the feeling of it. And Konan? Fuck Konan! Fia was the real thing! Literally! And who would fall in love with the sisterly little miss Paper Cut when you had a Valkyrie like Fia in front of you?

And suddenly Fia was the magical girl who had to save the poor, charmed Prince Charming, a.k.a. Nagato and all his sexy paths of Pein, from the clutches of the evil Konan. The brave magical girl with ridiculously over ornamented pink, white and gold costume with an awesome witch's pointy hat of the same light pastel baby pink creamy color was overcoming amazing dangers and along the way she met with and was joined by cat girl MJ, queen of thugs L-chan, Robin Hood-like Hatorri and the rest of the AFC gang… and you get the point.

Fantastical, magical things fewl by her imagination and it was already 10:00 AM when MJ opened the door to her apartment. The blonde bimbo had a dreamy expression on her face, eyes were sparkling, and her mouth was slightly open and stilled in a smile. A small drool had found its way down her left corner of her mouth.

"Princess Fuun! Leave saving your spiky haired Prince Charming for another…err… time. Takeshiro is taking us out for breakfast."

Fia snapped out of it when MJ spoke to her. She then looked at the time and was surprised to see it was 10 AM already… she had spent 4 hours or so daydreaming…She was surprised how fast time flew and then something clicked within her…

"I want to write a book!"

"You always want to write a book…"

"And I do, I just need to publish them." The blonde grudgingly cut MJ before she had the chance to say something sarcastic.

"Really now."

Fia turned around to give MJ a "you don't want to start this" glare.

"We have to go, Takeshiro is waiting for us…" MJ found herself alone in the room. Sounds were, however, coming from the kitchen.

"He can wait. I don't want to risk not eating."

"What are you…"

MJ would have facepalmed. She should've glared. She sighed in defeat. Fia was already eating her second humongous 2 meat and cheese sandwich. The black haired girl gave the remaining three oversized sloppily made sandwiches a skeptical look.

"Mmmm! Sweet, sweet calories!" Fia exclaimed, several pieces of sandwich flying out of her overstuffed mouth.

"I won't care if you die from heart failiure at 30…" the black haired girl started.

Fia took a few large gulps of milk, directly from the carton, and swallowed her bite of sandwich.

"And in 50 years from now I'll be like "In Yo' Face! Ha!" the blonde pointed an accusing finger at MJ's nose, said girl making a disgusted grimace at the slimy, covered in meat gravy finger, at which Fia gloated even more evilly.

"How was Prince Charming last night?" Jessica switched the topic, obviously wanting the blonde NOT to touch her with her gravy covered hands.

What she got for an answer, however, was a dreamy sigh, not unlike the Disney Princesses, and batting of thick golden eyelashes. After quickly recuperating from the Disney induced trauma, MJ smiled smugly.

"How was the wedding?" she asked, actually joking about it, not really expecting an answer…she should've known better…

"First we went home. So he could ask father for my hand. It was funny because he said he had taken the jutsu from Oreo-chan…Which was a bit off the whole thing… but Dad's face was priceless, it owned everything funny I've ever seen! It was like that time when I had told him me and Light had eloped…hehe! He had started asking questions about his job, background and such and Spiky actually answered! And he wasn't looking smug or anything it was sooooooooooooo cute! Oh, oh! And when the wedding started you were there with Weasel-chan! And you had this preggie-weggie swollen belly!" The blonde squealed in a rapid fangirl fashion. " And Weasel-chan was so ultra protective of you and your baby… oh, and Konan was the Mad… I mean Maid of Honor…" Fia shivered." And I think in the end his hair turned black…creepy."

The blonde frowned in confusion.

"Uh-huh." It was all Jessica could say after such a mouthful from Fia. She got most of it though. And on a side note, Fia's dad had become extremely paranoid after that incident several years ago. It was funny as hell when he flew all the way from Europe to New York with his lawyer to break the marriage. It was considered one of Fia's greatest prank masterpieces, even if it was only intended as a small phone gag.

The blonde finally finished her sandwiches and the two headed out. MJ had noticed Fia was a ton more spacier than usual. She was also in a very lovey-dovey mood. It was not surprising, really, given the fact she shared a glomp with the sex god of her wet dreams. Heck, even she was going to be like that if she had done the same with Itachi. There was a pang of sadness when she thought about Itachi. It was two weeks and not a whiff of air had come from him. In fact, all they ever saw of anything Akatsuki was the Deva Path Pein, and L-chan had gotten a quick glimpse of Konan. And that was it.

One would think that the moment they had fallen into the Narutoverse, the cast of the manga would start raining about and they would run around catching them with butterfly nets. Even she, pessimist extraordinaire MJ, expected to see more of the cast, and not be handled by some random ninja. But beggars can't be choosers, now can they?

This had lead her to the thought that whatever had happened, they were here by accident. And MJ was afraid of voicing that thought. L-chan wanted them to return home as soon as they could, fearing the retaliation of this realm's god/deity figures.

Fia was merely hell bent on making babies with Pein. No surprise there. Now, being the cynic that she was, MJ had come to the conclusion that a part of Fia would always be a rapid fangirl, no matter what. And rapid Fangirls thought with their cunts instead of their heads. Vulgar, but PEINfully true. Such were the woes in the path of life of the Cynic.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Trial

"You're late."

MJ sighed. Takeshiro was unusually strict this morning. She had two guesses, both of which were plausible. Either he really wanted to get it back at Fia for the tampon incident, the soap incident, the panties incident…or even the tea cup incident… the black haired girl shuddered at the memory of the last one…It really was an accident and not a prank. Fia was just that clumsy…she wondered if his …manhood would ever fully recover after being soiled by so much hot tea…poor man…and his poor manhood. Still, Fia shouldn't have tried to help out. It was utterly inconsiderable of her. She practically threw herself across the table, showing off her mighty bust, and she was wearing a short skirt by the way, and with a handkerchief started 'helping' him.

Talk about awkward.

Her second guess was that his orders were to be nice to them while they got acquaintanced with their new surroundings. It was probably a tactic to win their trust, which obviously had failed as whatever they said were either insignificant half-truths or flat out girly chattery nonsense. And they were already good enough with lying, especially L-chan, it was impossible for any of their 'spies' to figure out who exactly they were.

On a side note- they shouldn't be so confident, I'm talking about ninja after all.

MJ mentally sighed. It was probably a mix of the two. And to top it off her blonde friend was smiling happily at him with that goofy foxy grin of hers. Couldn't she at least once NOT be annoying… oh wait… that's Fia we're talking about… she is constantly annoying.

If MJ were to express the amounts of stupidity Fia had achieved at that particular moment, she would've fallen to the ground, yelling obscenities at any deity she could think off. Even she, the snobbish rich girl, knew not to piss off a ninja. And with Fia it was probably either her reputation as unpredictable and unstable or her pride. And, believe me, Fia took pride in all of her qualities, even the bad ones like her gluttony and laziness, and turned them into something she bragged about. No wonder she was so overconfident. Maybe that was why she was friends with her – she just knew how to make people feel better about themselves or those around them… even if she had no idea how she did it or realized she did it. She was just like that – a spur of the moment stunt junkie with a Mad Scientist fluke. Or the other way around.

Back to reality.

"You are late." Takeshiro repeated harshly to them, mainly because Fia was enjoying a most intriguing… dead moth that was floating its way down a small stream of rain water by the side of the street.

The blonde ignored him, fascination evident on her face. Her deep azure sapphires for eyes tracked the path the moth had gone through… it made her think about important stuff…like cycle of life and how humanity came into all of this nature crap.

"Ne, Takeshiro-sempai." She started sweetly, completely ignoring the small amounts of killer intent directed straight at her. "It is a beautiful morning, don't you think?"

The blonde girl looked at him, that look of fascination still on her face, a gentle smile plastered on her lips. She seemed happy. And on a deeply subconscious level Takeshiro was creeped out. What the fuck was she scheming again? Was she aware of his plans?

On the outside he had his 'poker face' on. He was not about to look like a fool… not when Pein was watching his every move.

"Let's go. I need to do something before we go eating." He said coldly, no trace of the old, flirty friendly Takeshiro-Sempai.

L-chan looked at MJ. She hadn't said anything this whole time. One would wonder why. It was that time of the month and she was feeling particularly cranky that morning. It was obvious by how clenched her jaws were – she was stressed and did not want to show weakness… not today at least. And she didn't know what kind of herbal teas local women used for those type of pains… the ninja world had nearly no medicines… except for potions and herbs, and other natural ingredients, but that was it.

The three girls followed Takeshiro silently. Now, here is a little flashback from chapter 9:

T-that's him! She thought, that's the ANBU who interrogated me!

She still hadn't told MJ and L-chan this was the ANBU that was assigned to her. She didn't want them to tense up and to blow some of their cover. Unlike her, MJ and L-chan didn't have …or more like LACK a common self-preservation sense.

On the way to wherever they were going at some point she had started humming the song Hide and Seek by Namie Amuro. It wasn't a song she was particularly fond of, mainly because she didn't like the singer herself, but she liked the beats and the instrumental in general. But the real reason behind humming it was to try and warn MJ and L-chan of a probable trap that he might set up. Not that they needed additional warnings but she had the distinct feeling that they weren't going to go to breakfast anytime soon. This whole situation oddly reminded her of Team 7's ninja test. She guessed she just had to wait and see. Besides, why worry about what would happen later? She already had thought about it. She knew practically nothing about his skills and she had no chance of understanding how to fight a battle with him.

Genjutsu master? Stab self or bite self.

Ninjutsu? Hide.

Taijutsu? Let MJ handle it.

General ninja kick ass skills? They were screwed, he was ANBU. What was Pein thinking anyways? If they were to be his spies why train them? Why go through all this trouble anyways? Maybe he thought something was amiss about them? That was probably it. He could kill them. Maybe not L-chan- she also has the Rinnengan. Fia looked around her. She tried to indulge herself with her surroundings to keep herself from expressing her concern. If Takeshiro notices her anxiety, she would never live it down… neither would her pride and ego. On a deeper level, which she referred to as a semi-subconscious level, she continued to arrange all the things she was thinking about. And she was thinking about all the possibilities and their outcomes at the same time. Her plan was formed soon enough, without her even paying attention to what exactly was going on in her head, and yet fully aware at the same time. Even she couldn't explain it.

Still, whatever was going to be thrown at them, it was a situation in which they had null chances of winning. They could however, hold as long as possible. And for that to happen, they needed to know what Takeshiro was made of. She realized he may try to fool them many times. But they didn't really have a choice. Fia looked at MJ who was silently walking next to L-chan. She smiled at her. Fia had faith in MJ. If anyone had at least some kind of miniscule chance to kick Takeshiro's ass, it was MJ.

Flashback

"Ne, Takeshiro-sempai!"

"Hai, Fia-chan?"

"You are a ninja, right?"

"I told you a hundred times that I am, silly." He chuckled at her cute childish antics.

If this was some type of soap opera, or an Asian drama, or a Shojo anime or something, MJ would've gagged. But this was real life acting, and Fia was pretty good at being the main shojo protagonist of her own little fiasco. She wondered if Takeshiro was pretending to be the ideal mate of said shojo protagonist or something… the whole scene was just too damn perfect.

"I'm going to the ladies' room." MJ announced. Once she went there, she gagged.

"You have different ninja weapons, right?"

"That we do, Fia-chan."

"What kind of weapons do you use."

"All kinds of weapons, we sometimes improvise and even use whatever comes handy."

"Wow! Takeshiro-sempai! You are so amazing!" the blue glittering eyes sent electric pulses down Takeshiro's spine.

Then followed a long conversation about the different types of weapons and the three of them were finally allowed to go and choose something from a local weapon shop. It wasn't abnormal and the poor ANBU captain just wanted to get some rest before tomorrow's medical examination.

In the end, MJ got herself two beautiful sai and a normal Katana, even though her choice was actually a pretty good one, L-chan also took a Katana by MJ's advice and Fia stocked herself on smoke bombs, kunai, wires and other things she claimed to be 'awesome ninja stuffz'.

End of flashback.

That was three days ago. And all of them were fully packed on weapons and all their ninja equipment. MJ just wanted to get over with all of this. It was a bit nerve wrecking, especially when they had no ninja training. But she was a world champ when it came to martial arts and would make sure to kick some major ninja ass. Her weapons were secured and everything was in place. In any case, she knew she had to do her best – L-chan had a black belt, but hey, she had nothing on her, and Fia was a walking catastrophe waiting to happen…save for her ungodly throwing skills and her evil genius.

"We're here." Takeshiro dully announced. MJ really did prefer the previous Takeshiro. The way he acted now was unnerving. You couldn't distinguish which of his personalities was real or not. But MJ had the distinct feeling neither were. They had to be on their guard.

"Ne, Sempai? Why are we here?" Fia, obviously, asked. She was already scanning the area.

"You will be tested here. Your test will be survivability." He said, sending chills down their spines. L-chan gulped, MJ did not visibly react and Fia tried to laugh the feeling of unease off. She smiled apprehensively and scratched the back of her head. She was a coward. Why hide it? She was also stupid in the self-preservation area… ahem… anyways, back to the story.

"But Takeshiro-Seeeeeeempaaaaaaai!" Fia whined, yes, whined in protest. "We haven't eaten yet!"

"You would probably throw up, so there was no point in eating. You will eat afterwards, when you have been evaluated."

"Awwww. You are mean, Sempai-"

"Silence." Takeshiro did not raise his voice or anything. It was the KI that shut her up… or so he thought. Male dominance much?

MJ immediately tensed even more by the release of killer intent. L-chan made a few steps backwards. What was with this guy, anyway?

Fia gaped. First, there was surprise, then there was confusion…and then she scowled. MJ's eyes widened. In all of her life that she had spent with the hazardous blonde she had learned a thing or two about her- first of all, Fia had an Ego the size of Russia when it came to her skills. Second, she carried herself with the typical Johnson pride. Third, she preached for world peace and emancipation.

And Takeshiro had just pushed the third button.

With lightning speed MJ crashed into Fia and did a headlock around her mouth area. Takeshiro was surprised to see her move so fast- he hadn't expected it. He then saw MJ whisper something to Fia, at which the blonde bimbo nodded and grudgingly calmed down.

"Now that was extremely mean, Sempai." Was the only comment the blonde made towards his order. Her eyes told him all the obscenities she was projecting towards him in the form of mental cussing.

"Begin when you are ready. I will be standing right here. Your objective is to defeat me. Lose, and suffer the consequences." Harsh.

Takeshiro was too used being around ninja. He expected them to hide the second he gave them the signal to start. They simply looked at each other and calmly made their way to the bushes. Why hurry? He said he was going to stand right there, right? Takeshiro felt extremely irritated at their obvious abuse of his ninjahood and lack of respect.

They were going to pay for their insolence… pretty soon… especially if they failed his test.

Meanwhile, the three girls were bundled up behind an especially thick tree. They were discussing their options in English, not really whispering, but rather chatting quietly.

"MJ you take the offensive." Fia started." I suggest you change styles every few minutes or depending how the battle goes. You know the drill better than I do, anyways."

MJ rolled her eyes at Fia. It was irritating when Fia had raid mode going on. She was too used to bossing people around when it came to fights, even if she wasn't the raid leader.

"Fia, did anyone elect you leader recently?"

"Uh… no, why do you ask?" the blonde answered MJ, not really thinking about what she was trying to tell her.

MJ sighed frustratedly.

"Fia, shut up and let's be quick about it. I'm going in."

MJ promptly stood up and charged at Takeshiro, her sai at the ready. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. So much for team spirit and team work. Or is it?

"So that means we go with plan B?" L-chan asked.

"I guess so… I really wanted to avoid it…" Fia said, a frown on her pretty face.

"You want to avoid anything as long as it has you involved in physical activities." Rose sighed.

They both looked at MJ and Takeshiro.

As the black haired girl charged, the man easily parried with a kunai. He was so fast! But MJ was also fast, and she was agile as well. Ninja or not, she was determined not to let him win against her, one way, or another.

Metal clashed against metal as she skillfully twirled her sai to parry, slash and stab. The ANBU Captain was impressed with how well the girl handled his speed. Her style was what caught him unprepared. He had never seen anything like it. Every time she attacked, he pulled away, he dodged or parried it. The sai were in the hands of a true martial artist. They were like an extension to her arms. When he tried to return a blow she moved with him, not with his speed, but fast enough to move out of the way of his strike range.

She was smart and his guess that she would make a great kunoichi were correct. He decided to kick things up a notch and attack her. His sudden piercing move came as no surprise and she immediately pulled away.

Takeshiro realized she used a sort of hit and run tactic. His change to offensive merely made her stop for several milliseconds to reevaluate her attack pattern. Then she pulled away and took a good look at his stance.

If Takeshiro could brag about something, it was his fighting style. In the ninja world things like fighting styles were mostly kept absolutely secret. It was crucial if ninja wanted to be in shape to defeat their enemies and complete their missions.

MJ however, had spent the majority of her life studying martial arts, and back on earth such information was easily accessible. She recognized his stance immediately and quickly changed her own style to counter his. Her only advantage, as it was from the beginning, was her knowledge.

As Takeshiro was about to attack, he noticed that the girl had changed her initial stance the slightest bit. He, again, did not recognize it. He took it as a mistake on her side. He smirked at the opportunity to show her who's boss.

Takeshiro charged. Only a moment before he was about to slash her with his kunai, she rolled to the side, landing a surprising kick to the side of his torso. That almost took him off balance but he was quick to pull away.

He thought this was going to be another routine ass-kicking, but she had landed a hit. Now…now it was personal. And he was going to make her regret the day she ever thought about learning martial arts.

"Not bad for a little peasant." He said calmly, but MJ knew he was trying to intimidate her. It was common knowledge that men always tried to intimidate their opponents in order to make them lose concentration and make mistakes. MJ was a smart girl. She didn't win her titles as a world champion at martial arts by step dancing.

Takeshiro was impressed that she did not react. Kunoichi hated it when their opponent talked to them like that, no less a male. The girl had a fairly good head on her shoulders. For now.

Takeshiro charged at her again, now having his full attention on the girl. The other two were no match for him. Even that blonde devilspawn. Oh, he would have his revenge. Especially for the tea cup incident. After several clashes he realized that that minor change in her stance was because he changed his style. And as they were in the middle of a ninja clash he suddenly changed his style again.

He made a slashing move towards her throat at which she dropped to the ground and tried to do a ground round kick. He merely kicked her off, due to a small opening she had. She flew towards a tree on the other side of the training field. He expected her to crash heavily on one of the trees. On the moment of impact however, she seemed have rotated herself in time to bounce off the surface of the tree she landed on. Using the gathered momentum she charged at him. He did the same.

They almost collided, Takeshiro slashed at her with his kunai but instead of dodging as he expected her to do, she grabbed his hand and used it to propel herself in the air. In his mind, that was a stupid move. She had changed her style yet again, he guessed. But the new style left her open in the air… or so he thought.

The ANBU Captain threw the kunai he was holding at her with full force. And in the matter of seconds she was airborne, as he threw the Kunai, she did not blink. She merely smirked… and using one of her sai, she hooked the kunai to the blade and threw it to the side. There was no point attacking him with it, he would only get it back.

With a battle cry, as she landed, she sprung forward at him, and still using the same momentum, was able to land a single light scratch on his left forearm.

Takeshiro's eyes widened. How was it possible for her to land not only one, but TWO hits on him, ANBU Captain? Had he put his guard down? Was it possible that she knew how to counter attack his very own Taijutsu style? Pein was watching and he had told him he was not allowed to use Ninjutsu, it would be impossible for them to fight against him if he were, the leader had told him.

He expected her to know a bit Taijutsu, not excel at it, let alone three separate styles. This girl was a prodigy with what she did, and she wasn't even a ninja. She must've had some pretty good teachers.

Something metal and shiny whizzed by him and he pushed MJ away and did a backflip to get some distance. He looked at the direction from where the kunai had come and he saw L-chan standing there, looking all smug, and not wearing her glasses. It was the first time he had actually seen her Rinnengan… it was unnerving but he had more important things like a certain black haired hurricane of sai slashes to deal with.

The two were once more clutched into a ninja clash, this time even more vicious. Despite how well she held against him, Takeshiro could see she was getting tired rapidly. They had been fighting for well over 10 minutes now and he could guess her usual battles lasted for less than 3 or 4 minutes and were nothing like this. He could read it from her slightly frowning expression and the determination glinting in her crystal blue eyes.

Finally, seeing MJ fatigued, L-chan charged in, despite feeling a bit scared seeing how good he was. She hoped he wouldn't take her on the same level as MJ…what the hell was she thinking!? He was a ninja! Ninja played dirty.

The red haired woman had removed her glasses for safety reasons. She was trying her best to look as confident as possible, hoping he would fall for the bluff she was trying to pull off, as in her knowing how to use her doujutsu. She didn't know whether it was working, but at least she could use her katana well enough to give MJ a few moments of rest.

Both girls were fully aware he was toying with them. And both of them knew the chances of winning were extremely slim. But they also knew that by truly doing their best, they had a small chance of getting a lesser punishment for not defeating him.

"Your sword skills are, needless to say, pathetic." Takeshiro commented.

L-chan didn't have time to respond as he effortlessly held off against both of them. Fatigue was taking its toll on MJ.

Fia was nowhere in his sight. But she was in the sight of another, who watched carefully the battle. Pein was mildly curious to see what the blonde was doing.

Currently, he was on a branch right above her, and her being beneath a rather large tree. It was kind of pathetic not realizing she was being watched, but he figured she was, after all, no ninja. What she was doing, though, was intriguing.

The girl was using a kunai and shuriken as some type of handy tools. And quite skillfully too. And she was currently doing reverse engineering on several smoke bombs. And she seemed to have completely forgotten that she had to do a ninja evaluation test. She was even humming. The nerve this girl had… or stupidity…whatever it was, he knew he was going to see something completely unexpected.

If he hadn't been the almighty Leader of the Akatsuki, he would've sweat-dropped. She was sitting on a particularly large tree root, which seemed to be quite dead. The girl had even knocked on it a few timed to make sure it was a dead root. What the hell was she up to?

First of all, the girl had some pretty good knowledge on explosives, which was quite impressive for a civilian. Second, how the hell did she open the smoke bombs without igniting them? Chakra was used to seal them and she didn't even use any. Third, why was she hacking at the dead tree root with the kunai she was holding?

"Aha!" she exclaimed quietly in triumph, as she removed the bark and revealed the dry wooden scrap beneath it. She started scratching it off with the Kunai. Pein finally got an idea what she was up to. She was tampering with the substance used for the smoke bomb… but why tree bark and wood scraps?

Fia had spread out some kind of piece of paper (Pein suspected it to be a piece of toilet paper) and had poured the substance from the smoke bombs and the carefully picked out pieces of wood scrap she thought were most useful.

And then she started looking around with a thoughtful expression on her pretty face. When she looked up where he was, at which point he had moved to a different tree before she had noticed him, and then looked more carefully about the tree branches. Had she sensed him? There was no way…

"There!" she smirked mischievously and if he was anyone else and not who he was, he would've sighed in relief. She was looking at a bird nest which was pretty high up the tree.

Now, he had found out the girl was afraid of heights and if he was sure about what she planned to do, there was going to be plenty of hilarious moments in a few seconds.

Fia's eyes widened as she realized the bird's nest was just too high for her. Even a meter was too high for her…how was she going to get the nest and its contents? Maybe she could knock it down? Or harpoon it in some way with a kunai, tied to a string…

She sat like that for 5 minutes before coming to the conclusion there was no way possible for her to get to the nest because of how thick the lower branches were. She whimpered in defeat and then sighed heavily, visibly slumping.

Pein allowed himself a small smirk. That girl was just too expressive. He watched her as she took out a several rolls of wire and, also using her jacket, made some sort of harness. Seriously, where did that girl learn handy stuff like that? And she wasn't a ninja even. The blonde intrigued him in some way, mainly because he was sure that she had some sort of hidden agenda. And as the saying goes, it takes one to know one, and Tobi/Madara was pretty much like her… only that the Tobi personality was far more stupid than this girl. And she was so care-free… it was weird.

"Ok, Fiffie, my girl, you can do it. If Bear Grills did it, so can you. Remember what Tifa-chan told you, don't look down… think about your final goal."

Pein slightly gaped. Was she for real? Usually, he wouldn't react. But this was ridiculous. She was giving herself a prep-talk. And her voice was slightly whiny, obviously showing her fear but trying to sound brave at the same time… it was cute in a weird, funny way.

"Ok… uh… yeah! Let's do this, 'tebayo!"

With a final nod and a look of determination, she carefully threw a wired 3-fold kunai around a higher branch and then started carefully to pull herself up.

Pein was giving the girl a dark smirk. Pathetic. She was quivering like a leaf from fear, and yet she was slowly making progress. He only hoped he would see something spectacular for all of this stupidity he was witnessing. But as any self respecting man, he appreciated the fact she was wearing quite the tight uniform, and a sports' bra, to top it off. These were one of the good days of Pein, Leader of Akatsuki. He sure enjoyed seeing other in 'pein', including the mental torture this girl was going through to get that nest… for what ever reason…

Finally, what seemed to be forever for her, she rested on a secure looking branch, after giving it several good kicks to make sure it isn't a dead branch… sometimes branches sprouted leaves, but were dead branches, as it they were weak and could break at any moment, as it was with most old or big trees.

The girl did not look down at all, and instead looked up, to see how far she had to go… only 2 more meters and she was there. She hoped the owners of the nest wouldn't mind her intrusion…much. She smirked evilly. Fia was a well known critter exterminator, whether it was Azeroth, Outlands, Elemental Countries or the Real World. No critter was safe from her, except parrots and rats, but that was another story.

After yet again positioning a Kunai with wire around a higher branch, she made her way upwards, towards the nest…and then all hell and chaos broke loose.

Chirp, chirp, chirp…

"Oh, shit…." Was all she could say when a swarm of birds, Dusk Robins no less, started assaulting the blonde bimbo. She tried to swap the pesky little things away with one hand, while holding the wires with the other. She had grimaced, keeping her eyes tightly shut in case someone decided it was a good idea to pluck them out.

"Fucking bastards!" she squealed meekly as she was now dangerously swinging. Pein was really enjoying this. Ok, not really, but this was way more entertaining than assigning missions and doing paperwork, even if he would never admit it to anyone. Still, he found it somewhat hard to keep his poker face.

The commotion the girl caused had probably revealed her location to Takeshiro but the man was currently teaching the other two a lesson or two about ninja Taijutsu and they were having just as much hard time as the hapless lass, who was battling at least 30 small birds.

Now, things got interesting as he expected her to just give up and start whining as Takeshiro had witnessed on many occasions. While the girl was selfishly stubborn about childish things, pulling through what she was now was something unexpected. Several birds were plucking hairs from her previously perfectly groomed golden mane and now she looked like a deranged orange monkey on a tree.

She growled in frustration and with much difficulty pulled herself to her target, the nest. The bird assault was now the most vicious and from where she was now, she could see a dozen more nests about. No wonder she was attacked by so many Dusk Robins… If she had the time to think about it, she should've yelled that those bastards lived in Australia, not Japan but…oh well…

Fia clumsily made her way down the tree. The birds were still attacking and there were plenty of scratches obvious on all of the exposed skin, including her face. Several bird droppings could be seen, mainly on her hair and back. Now having what she needed, she had to figure out a way to get rid of the pesky little chicks that were plucking like mad at her perfect golden mane.

But there was just no escape… why did Lady Fate had to make something so simple… so harsh? She had to make it through… and with that in mind, she quickly covered herself and her precious work with her jacket and at that point Pein could only wonder why she used the damn nest… and for what purpose.

Soon she reemerged from her jacket and he could see she was clutching a modified version of the nest, whatever she had made in it. Pein had a glimpse of her face and he could see unshed tears, mostly from the stinging pein of the constant bird assault.

If Fia knew anything about birds, it was that they were extremely territorial, and that they would do anything for their young… including attacking an ANBU captain… and what she was planning to do was slightly modified by the factor of the newly found swarm she now had.

Pein noticed that she was holding the nest in one hand and three eggs in the other. He had no idea what she was going to do with the nest… but the egg part he had already figured out… what a nasty trick… the girl was surely unpredictable…

In the mean time MJ and L-chan, especially the latter, were covered with scraps and bruises from Takeshiro. There was no chance in hell for them to win… and why the hell wasn't Fia here yet? She should've been here long ago! They needed to keep him busy until she comes with whatever brilliant thing she mustered up for 20- 25 minutes… they could only hold on for 5 more minutes or so…

Takeshiro saw the girl coming at him as fast as he had never seen her run. And she was running for dear life too!

Flashback

"Cammon Hatorri! I wanna try!"

"No, Fia, this is a guy sport! You'll get squished!"

"But I wanna!" The 14 year old blonde girl whined.

Her cousin Hatorri sighed in defeat and started explaining the basics of American Football... he hoped that the level of violence in this sport would make her stop whining after he taught her a few tricks.

End of Flashback

The blonde girl was running straight at him. Nest Bomb thingy in one hand and eggs in the other. Takeshiro knew her well enough, or so he thought, and he was sure she was going to throw something at him and then run off. And he prepared for that scenario. She, however, threw herself at him, using her awesome American Football training induced glomp skills, and stuck the nest, which had a bubble gum on its bottom, to the one place on his back which a man of his size couldn't reach. She was then pulled away from him by MJ.

Her brave move was not without a wound though, as Takeshiro's kunai was now promptly stuck in her left shoulder. She was grimacing in pain but she still had one more thing to do.

"In Yo Face!" She paused, despite the attacking birds, and with all the viciousness she could muster up, despite her wounds, she spat. "Bitch." And threw with her ungodly darts skill the three eggs.

Time seemed to slow down and L-chan threw herself just as selflessly to hold Takeshiro as much as it was needed. This was their only chance… they had to do it… they had to make it…

The eggs smashed into Takeshiro's face full force. They were not big, nor did it hurt him… but at the sight of the now dead three unborn chicks (which was a nasty surprise, even for Fia) the deadly swarm of Dusk Robins went truly berserk…and their attention was straight at Takeshiro.

CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP

"Oh, shit!" Not even an ANBU Captain could handle that kind of number of pesky little flying pests… and he could've used Ninjutsu, but he had to keep his eyes from being gauged out. The demonspawn had done it again… he felt as yet another part of his manly spirit was ripped away from his soul…

MJ quickly scratched against the nest bomb on his back with one sai, producing a few sparks. It was not over yet.

The moments that he had foolishly decided to toy with them were his downfall… he had underestimated them. And Pein was sure that after this humiliating incident… he would never do so twice…

As far as the nest bomb went… it wasn't a bomb at all…it was a… scorch device of sorts…

As soon as the sparks touched the toilet paper, it burst into flames, the flames then reached the modified smoke bomb substance… and a really powerful stream of bright flames and heat erupted from Takeshiro's back. Pein felt slight pity for the man.

He was at the mercy of the girls. And the birds.

After half an hour, he was tied up, on the ground, with a shitload of scratches, bruises and guano all over him. Fia was casually sitting on top of him and munching on a brightly colored sugar sticks, looking like a deranged orange monkey still… but in the calm after a victorious battle.

MJ was carefully tending L-chan's cuts and scratches. Fia was most wounded of the three but right now she decided to keep the kunai where it was so she wouldn't suffer blood loss. Despite the pain she was in, she was looking smug.

Finally, after what Pein deemed enough of a punishment for Takeshiro, he appeared before them, startling Fia, who being jumpy, managed to make another bruise on the man's heavily scorched back. L-chan and MJ were also quite surprised to see him.

The three of them stood up and did their best to show their respect.

"I see you did the impossible and defeated Takeshiro. He is an ANBU Captain." Pein stated casually, but seriously.

"I kind of figured he was ANBU, but Captain? How did he get that high?" Fia mumbled, not really watching her mouth. Pein narrowed his eyes at her, she obviously being a blunt blonde, and MJ quickly pulled on her ear.

"Careful! I'm low on HP!"

L-chan groaned.

"Keep that mouth of yours shut Fia! Be more respectful to your superiors, especially Leader-sama!" she patronized the girl.

"Sorry for being an idiot, Leader-sama!" Fia apologized in the most apologizeably cute fashion.

"You pass the test. As soon as all of you recover." He looked at Fia and Takeshiro especially, "You will start basic ninja training, with Takeshiro as your Sensei."

The three girls nodded.

"Impressive fighting skills… for a non-kunoichi. You need a lot of work and you need to work on your speed and accuracy." Pein looked at MJ sternly. She bowed her head slightly.

The Deva Path then turned towards L-chan.

"You are quite physically fit as well, but you lack the needed training for even a Genin. Still, that is easily redeemable via training."

"Hai, Leader-sama."

"And you." He turned to Fia, who visibly stiffened after nearly being caught staring dreamily at him (she was caught…sorry to break it to you, Feefs). The girl immediately regretted it as a new pang of pain went through her. "You are the most sorry excuse for a ninja-candidate I have ever seen."

The blonde was on the verge of breaking down into a crying fest, with the puppy dog eyes and quivering, pouty lips and the whole package of stuff.

"But! I have never seen anyone handle their own materials in such a way. And that trick with the eggs was an exceptional display of improvising. The smoke bombs… I do NOT want to know about it."

Fia nodded, feeling a bit better about herself. Pein just couldn't give a proper compliment.

He did however stare at Takeshiro's face for quite a while. The hell!?

"She did it!" Fia pointed at MJ when she noticed where exactly he was looking.

Pein raised a questioning eyebrow. Fia melted mentally at all the smexy display he was doing by just standing there in the field….

The Deva Path then returned to his usual state of Pro Poker Face look. He did not want to know WHY the black haired girl had plucked the man's manly eyebrows into a more slender and feminine version of their original selves…And what the hell did she use to pluck the eyebrows!?

If he wasn't so used to Konan's monthlies, he had no idea how he would've reacted. Still, they needed to go to the hospital… especially Takeshiro with his first degree burns on the back… where Fia had casually sat just minutes before.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Several hours later, all three girls were signed out of the hospital, their wounds were nothing serious. It was interesting to know that MJ could've sworn Fia's stabbed shoulder had become smaller, especially since she was the one to take out the kunai and bandage the wound.

The medics had praised her first aid skills. She was the daughter of two doctors after all. If she didn't know first aid, who would? And Fia's demented dissection attempt on squirrels and frogs did not count as first aid experience.

It was mid-afternoon and they were finally heading towards their favorite spot in town, the Karaoke restaurant.

"Ne, MJ! I feel so much better after taking that blissfully long shower in the hospital… there are no more droppings ruining my perfect hair…" The blonde suddenly stopped her random babbling and froze in her tracks gaping.

"Fia what are you..." MJ saw where she was staring… T-those… t-those were….

"Fuck you! Jashin damn you, you old money-grubber!" Hidan was yelling his lungs out at … you guessed it, Kakuzu.

Said old man was sporting a mighty fine throbbing vein on his left temple, but having such a nice cloth mask, it was impossible for it to be seen. Just a few more meters and he would be doing his own thing again… just few more meters till their report… which was slightly overdue, by the way, mainly because Kakuzu wanted to stop by and do a few bounty runs in the not so immediate area of their way back. And the reason for Hidan's obvious bitching was Kakuzu's undying love for money and all that was material. And because he was always the one who got it when the Leader got angry for Kakuzu's tardiness.

Three pretty female heads were staring at the duo. Fia had one thing in mind. Hidan was an albino… but he was just too damn hot and shirtless…and about that point she just started mentally drooling and not really having any coherent thoughts.

MJ, on the other hand, was really excited about seeing some new Akatsuki about. Maybe there still was a chance to meet with Itachi and…

"Fia, stop staring."

"I can't help it… he is shirtless…" Fia answered meekly to MJ.

"It's impolite."

"But shirtless men are practically offering themselves to innocent virgin maidens like myself to view them and …dream about it…"

"And what does 'it' is supposed to mean, like exactly?" MJ was irritated at Fia's opened perverseness…was she begging to be raped or something? Sheesh!

"No pants." L-chan answered casually, also inspecting the Zombie Twins with interest. They did not seem as tall as on TV… then again L-chan WAS 1.80 m.

MJ face palmed herself. She was surrounded by perverts. She sighed and looked up again only to see Fia dragging a startled looking L-chan towards the Zombie Duo… "That blonde idiot." She mumbled and went after them.

"I fucking had it with your sinful ways, Kakuzu, you greedy bastard!"

"Shut up, Hidan, or I'm ripping your head off. Again." And he was about to do so.

"Hi!"

Both men stopped arguing and turned to the owner of the voice. They seemed a bit confused, as before them stood a sexy blonde bimbo, in seemingly ninja looking clothes, but with no headband, along with a red head with sun glasses and a irritated looking pale, black haired girl. They didn't look local. Now, Kakuzu, being Kakuzu, would've glared at them. But the red head and the bimbo had two mighty fine pairs of…eyes, yes! Eyes! And he found himself staring at them.

She was standing there and smiling foxily at the two of them, being as cute as possible.

"Hi!" she repeated cheerfully.

They just stared.

She finally stopped smiling to intently and was now bearing a soft, cheeky smile, her deep azure sapphires for eyes staring at them with fascination.

"Uh… hi?" Hidan replied dumbfoundedly.

"Me and my girlfriends were going on our way to the Karaoke Restaurant and we just couldn't help but notice the two of you!" She started, sweetly of course. "And I was like, lets go and meet them! They have bad ass cloaks with big ass neckbands and cool design and all!..."

She kept on babbling like that for a while. The Zombie Twins were still staring. Was this some kind of trick? At least Kakuzu was reasonable enough not to completely lose himself under the girls' charms. Hidan was flushed and was goofily smiling at them. Dolt.

"You don't seem local. Where do you come from?" Kakuzu asked.

"We're not from the Elemental countries and we have absolutely no idea how we ended so far from home but Leader-sama was kind enough to let us stay." The blonde bimbo sure was a bundle of cheerfulness.

Kakuzu nodded. He would know soon enough whether they were telling the truth or not. So far he didn't detect any deception.

"You're the only two people we've seen with the cloaks apart from Leader-sama." Finally, the black haired girl, identified as MJ, spoke calmly. She had a really soft voice, to Kakuzu's opinion, the type which rich girls had. And rich was a word that always ringed bells in his ears.

Generally while Hidan and the blonde bimbo, Fia, were goofily chatting, Kakuzu and Rose and MJ were having a nice pleasant conversation. And they were occasionally glancing at the two goof-tards that were now an efficient part of the background.

"Are you ninja?" Kakuzu asked, eyeing yet again their outfits. "You don't seem to have Hitai-ate's."

"We are training to become ninja. Hopefully we would do well." MJ smiled, remembering the condition in which Takeshiro was taken to the hospital.

"Hn."

"You seem to know your way about Ame."

"That we do." L-chan answered. "Leader-sama had given us a guide to show us about."

Kakuzu had the strange feeling from the way she talked about the guide. The way she said the word… did something happen to him.

"A ninja guide? Not uncommon for a ninja village."

"Aye, he was a ninja."

"You shouldn't talk to strangers like that. It is extremely unadvisable." He finally stated, slightly frowning. After all, the majority of Pein's ninja were mostly missing nin, and some were not above raping.

"We know but our little bundle of happiness over there." L-chan casually pointed at Fia who was clinging at Hidan's arm and giggling like a school girl. "Lacks a common sense of self-preservation. Usually she isn't wrong about people, though."

Kakuzu eyed the blonde weirdly. She did not strike him as the type to be good with people's personalities. But come to think of it, she was pushing Hidan's right buttons. It was practically the first time in which he had seen him NOT swearing. Hell, he was flushed, but who wouldn't be when a blonde bimbo with that big a rack was practically rubbing it against your arm?

"I see." He finally spoke.

"So, what's it like?" MJ asked. "What's it like to be an elite ninja?"

Kakuzu raised an eyebrow.

"We figured that people with cloaks had to be some tough ninja, since you're the first ones we see with cloaks. And that is excluding the Leader, of course.

"You're observant."

"We're only women with good people skills." L-chan smiled politely. "And you two are pretty formidable compared to the other ninja we've seen around."

Kakuzu smirked under his mask. It was nice getting compliments from a sexy woman.

Finally, it was time to separate.

"It was nice meeting you guys! I'll see ya later, right Hidan-sempai? I really want to know more about Jashinism!"

After a few milliseconds of WTF moment, MJ sighed and shook her hair at Fia. Hidan was probably thinking she was an easy sacrifice… what a noob… not that Fia wasn't. She was even a bigger noob.

"Ne, Kakuzu-sempai!" said man turned to the blonde. "Keep up the good work being awesome!" she gave him Naruto trademark grin plus the good guy pose.

Kakuzu chuckled.

After final goodbyes, they went to their own doings.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

Going wild on a burst of rage

A small puff just to make the point clear

It's not suppose to make me scared, only aware

So what would you choose now? Truth or dare?

A/N: This chapter will be from 1st PoV mainly because it's the way I see it, with Tifanny narrating the whole chapter…here it goes!

The sand storm had been going on for quite a few hours now and I had the feeling that I was back in Africa, during my first days in the French Foreign Legion. I liked sandstorms. They reminded me that no matter what we, humans, did, Mother Nature would still have the upper hand. It was a soothing feeling, even though I knew that such a storm could kill me in less than a blink of an eye. But it was only natural that I would die some day, it was part of the cycle of Mother Nature. Just like the rest of my comrades in the Legion, I did not fear death, for the death of a single being would mean saving the life of many. And with my philosophy in mind, I thought of Charlie, who was still deep asleep in the hospital. Then again… I was now immortal… I still had hard time to actually realize it fully…

We were all gathered in the living room, that late afternoon. It was as dark as the dead of the night and the lamps were turned on. It was so due to two main reasons. First of all, the raging sand storm had blocked all day light. It was both very cold and dark outside, not to mention the mind numbingly fast winds. It was what I referred to as a Sand Hurricane. This monstrous storm was like nothing I had experienced.

Second, all doors and windows were completely shut, not allowing any of the sand to enter. The Yondaime Kazekage was calmly doing his paper work, Kankuro was repairing some joint of a puppet limb. Temari seemed bored.

Of course, when I said all of us that 'all' excluded Gaara. As it was well known in the series, Gaara was still a cold-blooded monster, and he did not sleep. He had a room here in the Kazekage Mansion, but he seldom even came over the building, mainly when his father wanted to keep an eye on him. Today was no exception. He was outside, and I was sure that all of Sunagakure, save for my experienced self, thought Gaara was the one who caused this sand storm. But I knew better.

Only an experienced soldier who had seen many sand storms would know the difference. And I have been all over the world for my short 28 years of life. I have seen many sand storms. Back in the day, when I was in Iraq, I had the chance to experience a most unique phenomenon. I was not as lucky as I was now to have a shelter to hide from the sand. I was with my fellow troops, hiding as much as we could behind the tank, when suddenly, the storm hit us full force out of the blue. That day was the day in which three of my fellow soldiers died from hypothermia. Yes, that's right, hypothermia.

I still remembered the scent of that sand storm. It carried the salty essence of the sees from beyond the gulf. To this day, no one knew what exactly happened. We had been stranded for several hours, but it was all it took, to kill those furthest from the center of our clutched forms. Maybe I was lucky then, I do not know. But I do know that Gaara, despite carrying the Sand Demon, the Ichibi Tanuki, Shukaku, could not possibly create such storm.

It came to my mind that it was somewhat similar to the freak storm that occurred all those years ago. The air, even inside the Kazekage Mansion, had the distinct scent of the sea. I grimaced. I had researched once on the internet about such phenomena. All I came up with in the end was that sometimes, when a certain land is not protected by natural means from the harsh winds of the oceans, then these were under the mercy of said winds. No wonder why the air was filled with the distinct scent of sea water. It was not a pleasant reliving of my previous such experience. How were these people even alive in such harsh environment? It was beyond my comprehension why would anyone willingly choose to live in such conditions.

Even if I respected Mother Nature, for all her horrible beauty and eternity, I could not help but feel these fools pathetic. It was not that they were idiots. In fact, it may be me who was an imbecile. Again, that did not matter. These people knew how to survive here, and these people had given me a helping hand when I needed it. And for that reason, it did not matter whether I would like them or not. It was my duty to do my best to return the favor. I was honor-bound to them.

Temari looked at me questioningly. I believe that she misinterpreted my grimace, which was still on my face, by the way. It was usually the reason, anyways. I tend to glare a lot. It came with the profession and with my way of life. I did not know these people as well as I would have liked to, and I knew that until I did, they wouldn't see much of my brighter side. I was a difficult person to work with, that much I knew. I was a soldier of simple tasks and emotions. I disliked complicated social relationships mainly because people liked to lie for various reasons. I also disliked lies. I preferred to get straight to the point.

Maybe that was why I joined the AFC in the first place, or why I chose to make friends with that seemingly obnoxious blonde girl. She was so straightforward and she always smiled, even when it was hard to do so.

"Is anything wrong, Tifa-san?" Temari finally had the courage to ask me. As far as I was concerned, she just interrupted my thoughts, which resulted in a glare in her general direction.

For some reason, even Temari felt a bit intimidated by me. Maybe I was too rough for their liking, who knew? I was not in the mood for long explanations so I exhaled audibly. Why do I always have to even bother with these people? Back home they knew to stay away if they knew what was good for them. However, I was not in a foul mood and I was finally starting to feel comfortable in my new surroundings. I was still pretty edgy about Charlie and visited her regularly, but I was managing not to snap at Temari and Kankuro… not in front of their father, anyway.

"How long would this storm last?" I asked. It was a question that bugged me anyways and now I would kill two rabbits with one stone – I would get my question answered and then Temari would stop bugging me. I liked silence very much when I was in the mood for it.

"They usually clear by the morning." She answered.

"Hn." That meant I had to deal with them till morning. At least Kankuro was doing something productive. I would never call paperwork any form of productive. My gaze slowly made its way toward the Kazekage. He was working hard on whatever he was signing there. I suppressed a very undignifying snort at his expense. What an example of a male. No matter how bitchy he was, he was a good leader. I do notice the discipline with which his ninja worked. And why bitchy? Men do not whine or bitch the way we women do, even if I was not exactly the most feminine example of a female Homo Sapiens Recens. Men, however, had their own form of bitchyness, which, I dare say, was very similar to being grumpy. He was like me in some ways, though. He was roughed up by life and by position. His kids were a living testimony. I wondered if I would ever show my face to public if I had kids like his. They were so afraid to show weakness… they were afraid of him… and of Gaara, of course. But they seemed, especially Temari, who was the oldest, to long for their Father's love. He just couldn't give them any.

I had come up with several reasons for it. Either he really didn't care for them, which I highly doubted, or he was afraid of Gaara's wrath. Gaara was quite the misfortunate kid, and even though he deeply believed that he loved only himself, I was sure that his siblings would be the first ones to go missing if their father showed affection towards them.

It was a lose-lose situation, and Temari and Kankuro understood it.

My mind drifted back to Charlie. I hoped she would be well soon… and how was I supposed to tell her she was now stranded in a world that was deemed fictional? It was best to be straightforward about it. There was no avoiding it, especially since she would wake up to a couple of medic Nins. The poor girl would be startled. THEN she would go into silent hysteria. And Tifa had seen the fragile, gentle red head of an angel go into silent hysteria- it was an unpleasant experience. And she doesn't know Japanese, too!

There were going to be sleepless nights watching over her. The girl had the most horrible form of insomnia she had ever seen. Being in a new environment was a sure hell-way to sleep walk, talk or anything with a 'sleep' in front of it.

I looked at the Kazekage again. He seemed to be a nice man beneath all his bitching. Maybe I should try and be more nice to him? He grunted and scratched something on a paperwork violently. Maybe some other time. He seemed in a foul mood and I hate handling any type of moods that would involve me in some way.

I shook my head. That man was very stubborn. For a 40 year old man with three kids, he looked exactly like a bachelor. His beard was slightly unkempt, giving off a naturally rugged look. His eyes were always glaring, the same way I did but for different reasons. I did not like him. He was too much of a trouble for me and I would be better off helping out Gaara. He was going to be fifth anyways….

Speaking of which…WHEN exactly were we? If The Yondaime was still alive and before my very eyes that meant we were before the beginning of the show or at the very beginning. He often referred to me as his weapon… I should keep my eyes open.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Indeed, it was early morning when the Sand Storm finally calmed down. I had stayed downstairs, listening to the storm, remembering the sounds it made, forever imprinting them into my brain. Those would be the sounds I would most likely hear often enough… Temari and Kankuro had gone off to bed early last night. I did not feel like going to sleep as I was too tense with the storm to actually go to sleep.

I was still lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling. The Kazekage had yet to finish the endless piles of paperwork. From time to time I looked at him throughout the night and was wondering how he had the mental strength to overcome these endless piles… it was a mystery to me how such a man was ever appointed Kazekage… but I realized that he had the will and the devotion to the profession even if some of his solutions… namely Gaara, of course, were more or less pathetically foolish.

Our silent interaction, which could be translated into 'we ignore each other but know the other is there' was not an unpleasant one… in fact, it was kind of…normal? ... Comfortable even. It was strange to me that I accepted his sole existence in the same room as me as non-threatening. By morning I started to drift slightly. The storm was calming when I finally dozed off.

I woke up several hours later by the sounds of Kankuro and Temari leaving the building to train with Baki. I felt a warm cloth over my body and when I sleepily looked at it I realized it was the Kazekage mantle. I was not one to show emotion and be disturbed by it. I felt sleepy still and decided to finish my doze down here in the living room. I felt comfortable and soon enough I found myself asleep yet again.

Later on I would muse about his mantle… I never guessed he was the type to play 'gentleman'. I dared not think any of it at the time but things were going to add up soon enough.

It was several hours past noon when I woke up. I felt slightly hungry and made my way toward the kitchen. I had the Kazekage mantle strapped around my shoulders. The cloth was quite warm and comfortable. And it was practical as well.

I went straight for the fridge and took out several ingredients to make myself a sandwich. I hadn't noticed but the Kazekage was there apparently, eating his lunch. He hadn't said anything but I felt his gaze on me. I turned around calmly to look at him. If he wanted to say something, he could have a go at it. It was a free world and he was the leader of this village of all people.

When I looked questioningly at him, he glared at me. I simply sat across him at the table and started eating my own sandwich. It was just as much as I would need. Usually he would keep his glare a few more seconds, but now he kept on glaring.

"Has something happened?" I asked caually, knowing full well something probably HAD happened and he was about to tell me… some people just liked adding up tension unneedingly.

"Char-Lee has woken up." He started, his tone was something that I hated, though. "She caused quite the trouble at the hospital…the medic nin had to sedate her."

"Did she speak?"

"No, she seemed to have gone into silent hysteria."

I sighed in relief.

"Shouldn't you be worried?"

"What exactly did she do?"

"She woke up with a start, according to the medic nin that was examining her vitals. When she saw him she backed up and started…or attempted to speak… she seemed extremely distressed."

I nodded. Even though his patronizing tone was annoying to say the least, I had gotten the information I needed. No silent hysteria here.

"She hadn't gone through silent hysteria, Kazekage-sama. She is fine."

"She hasn't spoken yet." He frowned at me.

"She has a psychological condition. She can speak and yet she cannot. She is also an insomniac. You are lucky she had actually woken up… usually she is very violent when sleep walking."

The Kazekage raised an eyebrow. I guess I should've told him that earlier…but it was not as if it mattered… The most important thing was that she was ok and awake. I had to go and see her, though.

"May I go and see her, Kazekage-sama?"

"About time you asked that. She will be here in less than 30 minutes."

"She has been signed out?"

"No, but I ordered the medics to move her here. She would feel safer if you were constantly around."

"That she will." I nodded at his statement.

And not only that- Charlie was an extremely heavy case of insomnia. She would sleep walk, sleep talk…sleep- anything in fact. And the girl was lucky to be with me. I had experience handling her when we went to Cons. We usually shared a room, and she never made it pass the door sleep walking- I was too much f a light sleeper… I still have a bite mark from where she bit me when I tried to subdue her once… she has sharp teeth.

"I wonder…" the Kazekage started quietly.

"Hn?"

"I had noticed the girl shares nearly the same appearance as Gaara…"

"That might merely be a coincidence. Where we come from such hair color and eye color are quite common. Well… not as much as it used to be, but still."

"And what about her… condition?"

"Her parents died when she was young. She never got over it I guess. Due to the stress and guilt she fails to speak. It is as if her vocal cords are sealed of sorts."

"I was talking about the so called insomnia. Gaara never sleeps."

"She has night terrors. And she is an insomniac because of her parents' death as well."

"Too much similarity. I think you are hiding something."

"As I told you earlier, it is not in my interest. While I can hold off my own, Charlie is a far too different case. She is very fragile and gentle, and an extremely loving person. You would see that for yourself soon enough."

He narrowed his eyes at me. At first, it had been extremely hard to convince him not to kill us. Now, it was extremely hard to convince him not to suspect Charlie of anything…without swearing. I do realize he is now my superior, but still… It was like I was back in the Legion. It was as if I had never taken a break for the Summer Con Season.

I sighed audibly and glared at him. Why did he have to make things complicated? I told him as much as he needed to know and more would be too much. But I think this had something to do with his nature and his position. Cute. No, seriously, it was cute how he tried to show his dominance over me. What a phailkage… as Fia would've said.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Whirlwind of Sand!

Sand Demons meet!

Charlie woke up to find herself in a dark gloomy, but yet warm and comfortable place. There were stone walls that made her wonder if they were stone at all- they were so smooth! The blood red haired girl looked about. Surely she would've remembered getting in this strange place…

"Wha-what was that?" a soft voice, Charlie's voice, whispered. She did not notice she had spoken. She had, however…heard something.

There was nothing interesting about her, all was the same. There was only the hall in which she was standing. Finally, after what seemed forever, she decided to go in one direction of the hall. At least she might get somewhere.

Her bare feet patted along the damp floor. She wondered where Tifa might be. She could sure use her amazing soldier and fighter skills.

Charlie was dressed in a white hospital gown. Her long straight blood red hair was loose. Her blue eyes were taking in her surrounding. She felt scared but not enough to show it. She was rarely the type to express her fears or worries.

Soon enough the corridor seemed to get a bit taller and wider and Charlie found herself at the entrance of a large, vast even, hall. What struck her the most was the form in the middle of the hall.

Charlie did not feel threatened by it. In fact…it seemed familiar… the girl got closer to it, confirming her suspicions.

It was her very own raccoon self, the one that she cosplayed as the SnJ Shukaku occasionally at Cons.

"Excuse me?"

Pale beige, sandy colored eyes, shot open. The iris was the form of a 4-pointed star. Just like Shukaku's. The said creature was a young woman, in her late teens. She was of petite form with blood red hair and strangely colored skin. It looked like sand. The woman was dressed in the typical Suna garment, similar to the way Gaara was in pre-Shippuuden. The woman's blood red hair was twice as long as Charlie's and was in an elven-looking style.

"Who…where…who am I?" the older girl asked in confusion. Panic seemed to spread across her face and Charlie was worried that she was going to hurt herself in her fright.

"I-it's ok! I'm Charlotte! And …err… I don't know who you are… and I don't think I know where we are." The young girl placed her hands on the older girl's shoulders and the Tanuki-girl seemed to relax. Charlie's soft hands were warm to the touch and the young teen found out that the woman in front of her also had an amazingly soft skin, despite how it looked like sand.

It was all so strange. Then it clicked to her that they might be in a place similar to Kyuubi's cell… only a lot less gloomy and damp.

Wait a sec…was she INSIDE herself? She could obviously feel the thin cold layer of water she was patting in… Charlie pinched herself. She was not one to swear but…what the fuck!?

Charlie went wide-eyed and took a better look about the vast dark hall. There was a cage with a seal in one far-off end but this Tanuki girl was not inside. Things were getting rather unreal at this point for her. Said Tanuki-girl stood up and also took a good look about her.

"Where do you think we are?" the Tanuki girl asked?

"Well…I'm not exactly sure…" Charlie's heart felt heavy. How was she supposed to tell her that she was inside her and she was not real… but she had to tell her. It wasn't fair. "You see… this place is …ugh… inside me… inside my soul, I think."

"Oh…"

It was kind of strange that she did not look appalled. It was as if she had told her tomorrow's bad weather.

"Urm…" Charlie was uncomfortable.

"Then…do you think you could remember who I am?" the Tanuki girl was so pure and innocent. Despite her inhumanly looks…and she had a fluffy Shukaku like tail and ears! She was like a newborn. Pure and untainted by the world…

Charlie realized she was the first thing she ever saw. And it was so strange… she had to tell her everything …and probably even teach her whatever she thought needed. This was going to be some hard work.

Charlie was just too kind-hearted sometimes. Just like the newly created bijuu.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

"So…I am a demon…"the Tanuki-girl finished softly.

"I think so."

"Then… if I am not supposed to be here…and…this is…ugh…." She was at a loss for words.

"I'm not so sure myself how you are to be inside me… but I know that I will make sure to get you out. It's not that I don't like you… you need your freedom."

The young woman nodded.

"You should wake up now, then….and urm… will I see you again?" she seemed worried.

Charlie didn't answer. She bit her lip. What if she wasn't able to contact her again? What would happen when she wakes up? She felt insecure but she knew she had to wake up so Tifa wouldn't worry. And Tifa was the epitome of a hen mother of the most vicious type.

"I should go now… I will try anything I can come up with to contact you."

"I'll see you later, then." The Tanuki girl smiled at the younger girl.

"Yeah."

Charlie opened her eyes. She was in a hospital room, knowing the surroundings too well for her liking. She swiftly stood up from the bed and carefully snatched off all the devices and needles she had on. Her expression was one of disdain. She hated hospitals with a passion. OF course, all the machinery about her started to emit sounds. Now she was irritated.

To add a very interesting fact, Charlie's psychological muteness was caused by her guilt and a few other things. She was so used to not talking she only did so in her own mindscape or when she was asleep or sleepwalking/everything. She had realized she was speaking aloud when she met the Tanuki-girl because, lets face it, you cannot mute your own mind when you ARE in your own mind.

The red head looked about. The noise was making her irritated. She wanted to leave. Now. The small frown quickly turned into death glare. She was about to exit the room when the door opened and revealed a tall, tanned man, wearing white medic clothes and what seemed to be a Hitai-ate. Charlie glared at the medic. She hated hospitals and any sort of medics with a passion.

She stood still for a moment, assessing her situation. Sunan Hitai-ate, hospital, medic. Sunagakure's hospital? Bingo. This had to be a medic nin. Charlie glared even more. Now she had an even slimmer chance of escape and no way in hell to blame it on her insomnia. Those people were trained to see underneath the underneath. Just great. That did not mean she won't make a wild dash for the door.

Usually gentle and loving, Charlie turned 180 when it came to hospitals. It was again part of her psychological state – she hated medics because they had failed to save her parents. And even a medical ninja was not safe from her dark wrath.

She took another look about and then made a dash for the door. The medic nin caught her but she was kicking and attempting to scream which he noted in his mind for the report he was to make. He thought she was in silent hysteria. She wasn't. She was just desperate to leave and/ or hurt him.

Finally, as he called for the other medics, she was sedated and was unconscious again… the red head saw the Tanuki girl again.

"Did you forget anything?" the demon asked politely. She had a worried look on her face.

"They sedated me." Charlie stated softly. There was no helping it.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. Medics usually do that when I trash. I don't like hospitals."

"Oh. When will you wake up again?"

"In a few hours, I guess."

"Why do you fight them when you know you will end up unconscious again?"

"I just don't like hospitals…or medics." There was a stern note in her soft voice. A small hurt frown had appeared on her face.

"Then I don't like hospitals either. They make you sad." The Tanuki Girl also frowned.

The two of them stood like that for a while. Charlie sighed and yet again looked around. She wanted to use her time down here…or wherever it was… to try and figure out how to contact this bijuu from the outside. Not that she had attempted in the 10 minutes of waking time she had…

When Charlie moved towards the gates with the seal, the Tanuki-Girl followed, like a lost puppy. She looked like one too… a more Tanuki-ish version that is. It was an interesting fact that she had two sets of ears- one elfin and one Tanuki. She had what seemed to be black smoke mascara and glowing blue swirly markings all over her body. They made quite the pretty patterns around the smoky mascara area, like extra lashes. Her nails were long and sharp. Her Tail was fluffy and sand dripped from it. It was like Shukaku's tail, but far more feminine. Sand seemed to magically drip and disappear from her. Still… despite how unreal she was… she was actually one VERY lost puppy.

"Is that the seal that keeps me here?" she asked Charlie.

"No… It should though. But you're not in the cage."

"Then I can leave on my own."

"I don't know if you can exactly. I don't know how it works…" Charlie said sadly. There were two things on her mind- first, would she die if she removed the useless seal? And second- if the Tanuki girl left her somehow, would the energy surge kill her? She liked being alive, despite all the horrible things in her life. She, after all, had an uncle and great friends (and club AND fans) that loved her and she was not about to go Emo because some one killed her parents… at least that was part of her very long self-prep talk.

"Time will tell." The demon smiled gently. She was the patient type, similar to Charlie.

Charlie examined the seal. Sure she had no idea what it meant but it was different from the Kyuubi seal. How she knew? Well, to begin with, she was friends with Fia. And Fia was a diehard seal wanna-be-user. And she had the Kyuubi containing seal tattooed on her belly. It kind of stuck with her after seeing it so many times.

"Charlie-san! Look!"

The red head turned to see the Tanuki girl doing something weird with…sand. She was holding a sphere of dripping sand . She seemed excited about it.

"You know, Gaara's demon, Shukaku uses his sand to protect Gaara."

"Hai." She nodded, not really listening. The Tanuki girl seemed fascinated by how easily and instinctively sand manipulation came to her.

"Maybe I can use it to protect you?" she finally looked at Charlie.

"Yeah…"

Sand moved as fluidly as water would. The two completely forgot about the seal and their problems as…well… what would be more awesome than playing with magical swirls of sand?

The several hours in which the sedative worked were spent in playing with sand manipulation.

Time passed and Charlie opened her eyes to find herself in new surrounding. She could still feel the energetic and yet soothing presence of the Tanuki girl. 'Hey?' she tried calling in her mind. At first she didn't expect to…well…anything to happen… not that she knew what would happen anyway… and then… slowly… she felt the presence growing stronger… she felt excited all of a sudden and then curious…then she felt as if the her entire world was so amazingly interesting.

Then Charlie understood. The link between her and the Tanuki girl so far was merely emotional. She hoped she could work on it in order to reach a better connection with her when awake.

"Charlie!" it was Tifa.

Her voice sounded relieved. She was sporting a healthy dark tan, from overstaying in the sun. She seemed to wear her hair in a slightly different fashion that her usual 'Hidan' one. Like she was trying to change her style slowly.

Charlie turned to Tifa and smiled at her.

"Are you all right?"

The red head nodded, while explaining to the Tanuki girl who Tifa was. A feeling of understanding swept through her.

Soon enough she found her spine being rearranged by Tifa's bear hug.

"Oh, sorry." She said nonchalantly, like she always did with her and let her go. She did stab her hard in the ribs with her hands. Not that she was strong enough to cause any damage.

"We are in Suna, dolly!" Tifa said quietly but excitedly. Her eyes were gleaming with morbid fascination. "You've been asleep for about a week and I've been made Suna's top weapon."

As per usual, Tifa was always to the point.

"Let's meet the Sand crew. We're gonna be living with them."

Living with Gaara and Kankuro and Temari? If she could talk, she would've squeed in joy. Gaara was her all time favorite character, along with Ron Weasley…She started jumping up and down, pulling on Tifa's arm and pointing at the door.

"Come on, puppet. First you get to meet the Kazekage."

Charlie's smile grew even wider! She got to meet Gaara in person! Yes! Now she could die happy. As they closed on the Kazekage's office in his mansion, Charlie began to sport a small blush on her face, making her pale freckles a bit more visible than usual. Her big blue eyes were looking about nervously.

"We're here."

Tifa knocked on the door twice. Charlie had noticed she always did that – when she was at an office or at a room of sorts, she always did two hard and well defined knocks on the door and then waited for 20 seconds before knocking again if she got no response. Charlie was fascinated by the Soldier-woman's strict way of life.

"Come in."

That voice did not sound like Gaara's, was the first thought in Charlie's head. Maybe his voice was not like in the anime? Still, it was familiar.

When Tifa opened the door, and when both of them quickly entered, the red head was surprised to see who was behind the desk- Yondaime Kazekage.

Confusion swiftly changed to apprehension and then to fear. That man worked with Orochimaru! What if they found out about the Tanuki girl?

Tifa placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's ok."

Charlie looked at Tifa and the calm expression on hr face. She always seemed so nonchalant…when in reality she was so strained by her own way of life. But there were different kinds of relaxed with her. She knew Tifa too well. When she said it was ok, then it was ok.

Charlie gave her a reassuring shy smile and turned to the Kazekage. She curtsied as a form of greeting and then nodded to him.

"I see she is finally awake." The Kazekage spoke directly to Tifa, as if Charlie was not there. The red head felt slightly hurt but knew not to react. Tifa's hand was still on her shoulder, which meant that she was ready to pull her out of harm's way if need be. She had to be as low as grass right now.

"And eager to look about." Tifa added. The red headed teen could never understand how this woman managed to make men like him seem insignificant in her presence. She was so… amazing in her own way. She wanted to be like her someday, steady on her ground, and respected by everyone for what she was.

The Kazekage finally shifted his gaze towards the younger of the two and narrowed his eyes until they were mere slits. The girl resembled Gaara too much and it unnerved him. She was in every aspect just like him, especially before Yashamaru's death. Who were they? It was a question that gnawed on him but experience had taught him to be patient. Tifa was a powerful warrior, and her amazing long-range abilities were nearly rivaling his own Kage level. The girl however seemed absolutely untrained. He doubted she would ever be able to become a shinobi, unless she possessed some kind of hidden ability that was so powerful there was no other way. He doubted that was the case. He was wrong, like he was wrong about many things.

"She is not shinobi material." He merely stated.

"She would make a good puppet master if trained. She is already skilled with her finger. She comes of a family of musicians."

"Why is that even relevant to puppetry?"

"She plays on a violin." Tifa's smirk was wide and slightly sadistic. That woman liked contradicting people, especially when she was right.

"A stringed instrument? If she is as good as you say there is still a chance for her. But I doubt that she would still be any good. I don't have time to waste nor resources."

Despite trying to look as neutral as possible, she could not help but slump slightly. She was not going to be a shinobi… and puppetry had always been one of the most fascinating parts of the Narutoverse.

The Fourth stood up from behind his desk and walked over to Charlie. Her breath slightly hitched when her crouched to be on the same eye level as her. She feared the man and he knew it. He smiled knowingly at her, at which Tifa Death Glared at him. The white-haired woman slightly squeezed Charlie's shoulder, ready to strike at the man if need be.

The Kazekage wondered what would happen if she and Gaara met. He would arrange this little experiment of his. He finally placed a finger under her chin and gently lifted it. Her skin was so pale and smooth, like a porcelain doll. And she seemed to have very feint freckles on her cheeks and across her nose. Her eyebrows were a very feint color, similar to Gaara's but not as feint as his. Her eyes were a light blue, pale color, while Gaara's were more aqua-green. They were still the same shape… and her hair… her hair was blood red, shiny silky. It was like Gaara's but much more smooth. He picked up a lock of it and examined it.

The girl was unmoving, and merely stared at him.

Finally, he was done, and he exhaled audibly. He stood straight again and looked calmly at Tifa, who was still sending imaginary daggers in his direction.

"Show her around the house and then join us for lunch. I want her to play her violin."

Despite herself, Charlie clicked with her tongue to get his attention. She signed to him in the sign language that the violin was not hers.

"The Violin belonged to her father." Tifa told the Kazekage who was now staring at the red haired girl as if he had discovered the fountain of youth.

"These seals are a her way of communication?"

"They're not seals but signs that she uses to speak to us." Tifa finally let go of Charlie's shoulder. "It's the universal language that people who are mute use. Do you use sign language as a form of communication?"

"Not like hers… it would be a useful tactic…" He rubbed his chin… still in his 'Eureka!' moment.

"Charlie and I can teach you the language. It's not that hard, since you already use seals."

The Fourth nodded, an ambitious gleam in his eyes.

"You are free to go for now. Remember about lunch."

Tifa nodded and led Charlie out of his office. The girl finally allowed herself to sigh in relief.

"Don't calm down yet, puppet. It's a long day ahead of you."

Charlie merely looked at her and then kept on walking along side her. If there was anyone to be stuck with in a fictional universe, Tifa would be a million times better. She just made her feel so secure.

The two of them visited the more important parts of the mansion, such as the bathrooms, Tifa's room, the living room, the kitchen and right now they were heading for the training grounds nearby. Kankuro and Temari were training there. Tifa had no idea where Gaara was, but she was glad he wasn't around. He was not someone to deal with, especially with Charlie around.

As they got to the training grounds, battle shouts and other sounds, those of battle, could be heard. Charlie slightly pulled on Tifa's hand. She was curious about what was going on there.

"Temari is probably practicing her Battle Fan katas. Baki usually trains them here, since its closest to the mansion."

Charlie was still waiting for a more detailed answer.

"Kankuro is probably sitting to the side and repairing/maintaining one of his puppets. I don't hear any of his 'battle sounds'." Tifa snorted.

Kankuro was a strong fighter. But when it came to him against Temari, the battle sounds involved were usually him and Temari cussing each other like five year olds would fight over a piece of candy and who found it first. They were like that when Gaara wasn't around. When Gaara was about, however, Baki was maintaining their other ninja skills, which were more subtle in their violence, in order not to provoke Gaara. And Gaara easily snapped.

So far Tifa was lucky when it came to Gaara. He had yet to blow his demented top. Relying on her keen memory and hearing, Tifa lead her ward to the training grounds and headed straight for Baki.

When Charlie saw Temari swinging her fan in the distance, she inaudibly gasped in fascination. The Sand Siblings were something of a specialty of hers when it came to Naruto. And seeing someone like Temari in real life was a big thing for her. True to Tifa's words, Kankuro was sitting close to Baki, maintaining a puppet arm. They were still pretty far away, Temari being the furthest of them by a long shot.

When the two of them got closer to Baki and Kankuro, the said puppeteer left his work and stood up to greet Tifa. He didn't want her on his bad side, considering he believed her to be as bad as Gaara. He had a friendly grin on his face but when he saw Charlie, he seemed to freeze to his spot. He just had to way to take her appearance it. He wondered if what he was seeing was even real. A girly looking Gaara? The thought alone made him double over inside and stiffen on the outside for the sake of his dear life.

"The Hell?"

His little WTF charade made Tifa sigh. She hated waiting.

"Kankuro, Baki-san. This is my ward Charlie. Charlie- meet Baki and Kankuro."

Charlie nodded to the both of them.

The sounds of violent whirlwinds stopped as Temari had noticed the newcomers.

"Tifa-san, konnichiwa." She greeted the white haired woman, who nodded in turn.

Temari also seemed to freeze in her spot at the sight of Charlie. She was more of the 'shock' freeze than Kankuro's 'WTF' freeze.

Finally, the red headed girl could get a closer look on them. Kankuro was of a bulky build and despite his attire and Kabuki Purple Pain, it was obvious that he resembled the Kazekage a lot. His black clothing was quite an interesting sight for her, as she had always wondered how it would look like for real.

Temari on the other hand was one healthy looking young woman with sandy blonde hair and aqua-blue-green eyes. Her skin was tanned but not much. Her clothing fit her battle style perfectly, at least to Charlie it seemed so.

"That's the girl you came with?"

Tifa nodded to Temari's question.

"She looks like Gaara."

Temari, like Tifa, was never one to shy away from speaking her mind.

"It's nice to have another girl in the mansion. Now it's three against three." The oldest Sibling joked.

Charlie smiled at her. She already felt close to her. Maybe Temari was a younger, and a subtler version of Tifa?

"We were just finishing training anyways. It's nearly time for lunch." Temari added as she fastened her fan on her back.

"We need to find Gaara. Kazekage-sama requested for him to come." Baki finally spoke.

He also seemed like Tifa in many ways. Were all sand ninja like her? Charlie could only wonder.

"Why bother? He comes and goes when he wants to and he always scares the living hell out of us…"

"Kankuro!"

"What? It's true!"

Temari sighed. She didn't bother hitting him in front of the guests, a. k. a. Tifa and Charlie.

"Kankuro, Temari. Take Tifa and Charlie. I will look for Gaara. You head for lunch."

In all honesty, for the time she had spent here, Tifa had noticed that among them all Baki was the one who seemed to handle Gaara the easiest. As Baki left to find Gaara, the other four headed for the mansion.

Tifa escorted Charlie to her room to get refreshed for lunch and then went to her own. When finally alone, Charlie sighed. What a day it turned out to be…. On second thought, what an experience, this whole Naruto ordeal. The red head looked about and found a new set of clothing for her. She had her stuff in the room, as she saw her luggage next to the wardrobe.

The set of clothes weren't hers but rather Sunan type of clothes. She took a quick shower and then she changed. She quickly braided her thick red hair into two braids and then headed for the dining room, clutching her father's violin.

She was all alone in the corridor and was busy looking out the windows to gaze at the strange sandy sight that was Suna when she nearly bumped into something…or more like somebody.

She didn't even have the chance to see who it was when a wall of sand sent her flying across the room. Her violin crashed violently onto the wall and broke into many small pieces.

Rather feeling horrified by the Killer Intent that Gaara was producing, she scurried to the broken pieces of her Father's violin. Her hands trembled as she handled the shiny wooden pieces…all those years of hiding it and now it was gone … just like that. Tears streamed down her face as the only thing that connected her to her father was now completely decimated.

'Why…why did he do this…' she mouthed, tears staining the floor. She didn't have to look at who its was to know it was Gaara of the Desert. The pain she felt in the back of her head, her back and her posterior was nothing compared to the sheer mental shock of having her most precious item being destroyed.

With hitched breath she slowly looked at him. And there he stood, watching her squirm in pain, waiting for the right moment to kill her.

Gaara of the Desert. He was as tall as she was, if even a bit taller. He was pale, but not as her. His hair was short and spiky and not as shiny as hers. He was a killing machine and she was a mere porcelain doll which he wanted to kill. But it was not his appearance but the swirls of sand that floated about was what made him look so horrifying.

His gaze narrowed at her trembling form…no… she was not trembling with fear… she was trembling with rage… he … how could he…

A horrible high pitched scream was heard throughout the whole area. With a crazed look, the doll charged at Gaara, determined to strike at him with all she had, even if that all consisted of her two feeble hands.

His sand threw her off once again and she fell hard on the ground. Despite the pain, she stood again, filled with primal rage, and made a B-line at him.

"Hn." He merely smirked as her doom was now sealed. He motioned with his hand for his sand to encase her. She was halfway covered in sand but she did not seemed scared. By now people usually begged him for mercy. She did not. She was too enraged to think about anything. Why had she reacted so to a simple broken instrument? He did not care nor would her ever. He wanted her dead.

Gaara started to close his hand into a fist, tightening his grip around the girl and trying to squeeze the life out of her. As the pressure started increasing, something happened that he expected the least- the sand literally exploded away from her, letting her exhausted body fall on its knees. Despite the fatigue, her dark determination was still the same. No matter how much of an all time favorite character he was, he destroyed her most sacred possession- her father's violin.

She took a few breaths and shakily stood up to stumble to him. He expected his sand armor to protect him and thus he did not move. But his eyes went wide when her small fists started hitting him as hard as she could. She was weak, however, and she could not hurt him. The contact baffled him. Why was she able to touch him? Why didn't his mother protect him.

Gaara had been touched before… but it had been so long ago, that this mere girl's invasion of his personal space, and pass his barrier, left him completely shocked. His eyes widened with fear and soon enough Charlie fell to the ground in a whirlwind of sand. And thus the Sand Demons met.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

Charlie vs. Gaara

Compassion vs. Death

Tifa grumbled in irritation. Charlie was not the type to get lost. Heck, her orientation abilities were rather superb. Something must've happened with the little puppet and that odd feeling in her gut made her frown. The white-haired woman was currently sitting on the right side of the Fourth Kazekage and was impatiently tapping her fingers on the table.

The Kazekage was slightly tense by her obvious disposition and wondered what would make her so irate.

"If you worry about Char-Lee, you shouldn't." he finally said. "I told you her safety is absolutely guaranteed as long as you are loyal to me."

Tifa was about to speak when she heard an outraged scream.

"Charlie!" The soldier stood up with lightning speed and headed towards the source of the scream. She knew it all too well.

But Charlie had been awake and it takes her hours to fall asleep in the night, let alone during the day. Something must have happened… and she was awake… and using her voice…

When Charlie was asleep, she was prone to talking in a very weird fashion, speaking in cryptic words and sentences. She rarely spoke loudly or shouted when asleep. Even during her nightmares she would only occasionally grunt or whimper… never scream. She, of course, occasionally did war cries but rarely. Never had she heard such a banshee screech as this one.

Many thoughts occupied Tifa's head as she rushed towards Charlie's room. Most of them involved severe pain for who ever disturbed her ward. After merely 20 seconds she was standing in front of Charlie, who had fallen to the ground in a swirl of sand…

Gaara did this. Tifa was now glaring holes into the air, thinking of different ways to hurt the male red head without actually killing him. Castration was a nice option right now.

She helped the girl stand up and back into her room. She was practically covered with sand, along with that entire portion of space. The red headed girl seemed exhausted and had very minor bruises here and there, but was fine otherwise.

Her eyes were lifeless and Tifa saw her hands clutching something hard enough to drawl blood.

"Charlie, what…"

Charlie was clutching the remains of her father's violin. The bastard did not just…oh boy… there was hell to pay now. It had taken years of therapy and Fia's constant presence to make Charlotte Georgiana into a remotely normal young teen… and now again through this.

Tifa did the one thing that she could think of. She slapped Charlie, hard enough to shake the girl out of her stupor.

Charlie stared, her eyes wide, and mouth agape. Did Tifa just hit her?

"You are NOT going to become an Emotionally retarded depressed little dolly on me, puppet!" Tifa was glaring dagger at her. The soldier woman could take tons of crap. And literally take on an entire elite squad of enemy soldiers by herself.

But letting one of her comrades end up like this was unthinkable. Tifa was pissed big time.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, puppet? Do you think you have the luxury to sulk or to feel sorry for yourself, huh? The violin is gone, so get over it! Concentrate on what you still have and not on what you've lost!"

Despite the rage in her voice, it was obvious that Tifa was very concerned with Charlie. Her voice was slightly cracked and one could understand that this was her being extremely just when concerned. Especially since she hated pansies.

Realization dawned on Charlie's face. Tifa was always right about anything. Even if she hated pansies.

The Kazekage was standing at the door frame, watching the exchange silently. He did not understand a word of what Tifa was saying, but he was sure that the contents of whatever she was lecturing about were along the line of anti-patheticness. He also did a mental note not to piss her off if he could help it. And then he remembered he had just said that Charlie was perfectly safe. Poor him.

"I know you are there, so you might as well enter, Kazekage-sama." Tifa was still glaring at Charlie while she spoke to him.

"What happened?"

"She had a close encounter with our resident sandman."

The Kazekage exhaled audibly. Gaara was only trouble it seemed and his decision to make Tifa his most reliable weapon about was becoming more and more awesome.

"Go clean yourself, puppet. Then come down for dinner. I'll speak to you about a few things afterwards."

Charlie nodded. She knew what Tifa was going to Lecture her about self-defense and self-confidence. Even if Tifa sometimes seemed to have forgotten that she was not one of her squad men, she was never too cruel or too unjust in her punishments or lectures. They were always the exact dose. That was why despite the fact Tifa had hit her for the first time, she was not angry at her. The two understood each other perfectly, even if they were so different- like the Metal one-legged soldier and the Paper Ballerina…

Tifa pulled on the Kazekage's arm and both went down.

There were several minutes of silence. The Tanuki-girl was trying to soothe her. Tifa was always right, and as life was never the kind goddess, Charlie made a note to become a tougher person, if only not to suffer… or at least learn to take the blows of life more efficiently.

Her mind went back to what happened when she met Gaara. She remembered a few things only. Being enraged always leaves a few blank spots in your memory. She did however remember how she wanted the sand to get off her right away. And it spread away from her. It had been the Tanuki girl's doing, she was sure. But she had no idea how it happened exactly. It was as if the demon was trying desperately to protect her.

She was able to control sand like Gaara, because of the demon within her. She felt sad for him. Again, she reminded herself how right Tifa always was… in fact, why had she stuck to such material possessions like her Father's violin? Sure, she felt the pain of it being destroyed, but it wasn't going to bring her father back. And how could she have even attacked Gaara? She felt very guilty now.

After half an hour, Charlie had gotten rid of all the sand in her hair and other places. Finally she was dressed in new set of clothes, again Sunan. Still, the vision of how scared Gaara looked haunted her. Was he so afraid to be hurt? No wonder, really, concerning his past. But still… Naruto was the person that had made him a different, better person, a Kazekage even!

Why wouldn't she be like Naruto? In fact, she was already calculating the possibility to make him a good person all by herself. Still, that would mess up the plot, but them being there was a big bad mess in the first place… She had to find a way to apologize for any inconvenience she might've caused.

Charlie headed down for lunch, she was looking forward to her life in Suna, in general, and she was going to show Tifa how tough she could be. It was her own little Red Dawn. She giggled at her own pun. She was a red head, after all.

Unbeknownst to her, Gaara had been watching her ever since he spirited away Sand style. She was indeed strange. Was his so called father trying to replace him with an angel like her? She had the perfect silky long blood red hair. Her eyes were blue, kind and gentle. She had pale skin, like porcelain, and there were very pale, almost unnoticeable freckles across her nose. She was like an angel, compared to him, the Monster, the Sand Demon… Gaara of the Desert.

She was very strange to him. Her emotions were always so visible…and she hadn't spoken a word yet. That did not matter as he could see her eyes, the way they were so lifeless at first and after that Tifa person spoke to her… they were full with determination and vividness… He despised her very being. Mother did not like her nor did he. She was a threat to his existence. She had to die.

But that would happen another day. His father already had too many ANBU for him to handle covering the girl. Again, he disappeared in a mist of sand. For now, he could only wait for the right moment to strike.

Charlie's appearance at lunch with a cheerful mood made Tifa smile at her. The tough woman knew that the kid had the guts to be strong, but needed also the heart. She was too kind and gentle and for some those were great weaknesses. For her though, it was an opportunity to make kindness and gentleness the strength of that petite 14 year old. It was time to turn a new page… her way, the hard way.

LINELINELINELINELI NELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

No matter what, Charlie was still the most musical teen about and she needed to keep her musical prowess sharp. Due to the turns of events, she needed a new violin. And the Kazekage, after Tifa's ominous glares and occasional dark looks, grudgingly agreed to spare some money for the girl's new violin.

And so, Tifa, Charlie and Temari were looking about a Musical Instruments' Shop. Now, its wasn't common knowledge, but Charlie knew little to none Japanese. She had good people skills and Tifa was always about which greatly relived the immense language barrier. She was also easy to understand, Suna being a ninja village, and her being a very expressive 14 year old.

Several violins had caught the girl's eyes and she was now deciding which one to try. The shop keeper was not very thrilled with the young girl's scrutinizing glare, mainly because she dismissed seven of her (supposedly) best violins as bad quality. Who the hell was this girl to tell her which violins were the best. Well, she had no idea this girl had more musical genes in her blood than Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky AND Chopin, at the same time.

"Did you like anything, puppet?"

Charlie nodded at Tifa's question, and the woman smirked. She was about to stun people with one of her favorite 'testing' tunes. The red head grabbed the violin of choice and readied herself for a mighty fine melody.

When the bow hit the strings, the melody of Vivaldi's Four Seasons-Winter sprouted in the otherwise quiet Musical Instrument Store. Tifa's smirk grew into a devious grin, while Temari's mouth hung open.

The poor blonde expected the teen to be good. But she was not good. Nay, she was Godlike with a violin and its bow. The motions were swift and fluid, and the girl had her eyes closed. Temari was sure that she was practically seeing the notes from her memory. The other thing she was sure was that her father would find a way to make her violin skills into some sort of ninja skill.

For now, though, Temari simply enjoyed the girl's amazing musical prowess.

Unbeknownst to them, they were watched (any surprise here?) by Gaara. He still hadn't found a suitable moment to kill her, but he would. When the bow hit the strings, he was surprised how skilled he was. But unlike Temari, it was not awe but jealousy that sprouted in his heart. So she was here to replace him? He, the Demon, was going to be replaced by this little Angel…

He clutched his hands with anger. Mother was not pleased. How was he going to extract his and his Mother's revenge if he was replaced by her? He had to get rid of her. He had to prove his existence by destroying what which most threatened him.

And the music played on. Her face was completely calm, her eyes were closed. She seemed not to have a care in the world but the sweet melody, so tenacious and strong, coming from the violin. Of course, her music had attracted a small crowd of passer-bies, and the now happy shop keeper was enjoying a nice rise in the income for the day. She had to make sure the girl came more often. It was good for the business.

Charlie bought the violin with a big discharge. She had a small smile playing on her soft pink lips all the way back to the Kazekage mansion. Temari was very thrilled by the mere thought of having someone to talk to that was close to her age. Tifa didn't count much for a girly girl… not that she did either, but it was nice to talk about womanly things from time to time. Tifa wasn't bad, once one could get pass the whole scary bitch aura. And Charlie was a cute little angel… once you got pass the weird obsessive happy stare on her face. Creepy, huh? She barely had suppressed the shiver the first time, but quickly got used to it.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Finally, night time had come. Gaara was waiting for her to close her eyes and go to sleep, so the surprise on her face would be the greatest when he crushes her petite, gentle figure with his sand. He was slightly trembling with anticipation for the kill… it was going to be his only chance before his father sent him on a mission with Team Baki tomorrow.

The window to her room was opened, letting in fresh air. It was a bright starry night. There was no moon to be seen as it was a night of the new moon. Slowly and subtly, Gaara snuck into her room. First, he took a look at her belongings. She had a few sets of clothes, neatly set in her slightly open wardrobe; her violin was proudly on display on the desk next to the bed. He took a few silent steps about the room, making sure to check for any seals. Usually he was not so careful… but he wanted to make sure the little 'angel' suffered and screamed for mercy. Throughout the day he had noticed she had said no word… was it possible she was so afraid of him she was dared not to speak? He was going to find out soon enough. And no one was going to stop him, nor see or hear of her or her mutilated corpse ever again.

He smirked darkly, his aqua green eyes shining dangerously, like the eyes of a predator, in the dark room. Oh so slowly, did he make his way towards her bed. She was wearing only a thing night gown, her hair was loosely spread about her pillow. Indeed, a little angel… his little angel… his own personal victim, the proof of his existence. Maybe he would even carve the kanji 'Ai' on her forehead, since she wanted to replace him so badly. When she looked like him, why not make her completely look like him? Maybe he could even cut those silky red locks of hair? The possibilities… the torture he could imagine all because he wanted to please Mother and to prove his own existence….

Roughly, he pulled off her covers, only to find her staring emotionlessly into the wall, opposite of him. She was silently mumbling something, obviously deep in a conversation with someone. She didn't even notice him there. What kind of sick game was she playing with him? Did he not know he could kill her with a flick of his wrist and a swirl of sand? His anger and blood thirst boiled ever so more.

Suddenly, as she was laying there, she lifted herself swiftly into a sitting position, now looking straight ahead. Her eyes were unblinking, staring into something with a disconcerned gaze. Something was off though, as he could hear her breathing become more elaborate.

'…can use the red one, don't you think so, Mom?'

The only time he heard her voice was when she screeched like a banshee in rage. Now, her voice was rather sleepy, but gentle, soft, like a refreshing rain that was so rare here, out in the desert. Despite his desire to kill her in any possible way, he was also curious about why she was behaving so strangely. He couldn't understand a word she was saying, but he had the vague feeling it was the same language that Tifa woman used when speaking to her.

Her face twisted into a disapproving frown. She seemed to dislike something. What was she doing anyways?

"…because I can."

Her expression changed to a hurt one, then to a pleading one. She seemed to be arguing with someone about something.

"…sing a song?"

A sweet smile appeared on her face. Her head wobbled slightly to what seemed to be some rhythm. She closed her eyes and went back down into bed, lulled by her mother's song. In truth, her mother had never sung her lullabies, but she always dreamt of it. Gaara observed her strange behavior. It was as if she was awake and yet she was in her own little dream world, asleep. He was baffled by her, and weary of the fact that he could feel her strange presence in his sand. It was as if she was touching his sand with her chakra.

He felt frightened, like the time she attacked him and broke his defense. Tonight was not the night to take her life, as it was at the risk of his own. He would wait, as llong as he had to. But he would wait.


End file.
